


Long Is Our Winter

by HomuraBakura



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Christmas, DECFANFIC, F/F, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Multi, No Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-06
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-05 05:41:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 32,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5363471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HomuraBakura/pseuds/HomuraBakura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of fics for DecFanfic.  Only Yu-Gi-Oh ships (including all spin-offs).  Relationships and characters will be added to the tags as we go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: ice skating  
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh  
> Pairing: Trustshipping  
> Characters: Seto Kaiba, Ishizu Ishtar, Mokuba Kaiba  
> Time Frame: Seven years post-series (Seto is 24, Ishizu is 27, Mokuba is 17)  
> Summary: Ishizu comes to visit over winter break and is unused to the cold and snow. Mokuba thinks it's a good idea to convince Seto to take her ice skating.

“I cannot believe I let you talk me into this.”

Mokuba responded by sticking his tongue out at his older brother, and then winking exaggeratedly and zipping off on his skates with the practiced ease of a natural. Seto glowered at his brother's back.

Meddling little... he thought.

He shoved his hands into his armpits and growled to himself, his breath smoking from his lips like an angry dragon. It was a cold night, clear skied without any clouds to insulate the earth below. The crescent moon glimmered between stars, looking like a white smile in the darkness that was laughing at him and his predicament. He glared at it, but resisted the urge to flip it off because that would probably attract strange looks from the other patrons of the city ice skating rink.

There were just a few too many people here for his liking. Giggling kids that zipped around on their skates, beleaguered fathers following their littlest children with awkward shuffles across the ice, embarrassed middle schoolers pulling themselves along the edges slowly and methodically because they didn't know how to skate, a very bored looking teenager in a bright red vest skating lazily back and forth and stopping to check on kids that had fallen.

Seto pulled his hat a little more firmly down on his ears. He really didn't want to deal with getting recognized out here. For one thing, he should be back at the office, working. It was the first of December—Christmas season, a time when he needed to be doubly on the ball because there were so many new orders, so many things to do, new designs to unveil and produce. For another thing, he didn't want his Christmas season to be plagued with his face on every tabloid magazine about his ice skating habits.

But Mokuba had insisted, and the years hadn't made Mokuba any worse at persuading his older brother to do things—in fact, it had only made him better at it.

I should have never let that kid join his debate team, he thought to himself with a grimace.

The brother in question was currently skating backwards in front of a little knot of girls his age, presumably to impress them while he was chatting them up. Seto tried to guess which of the group he would be seeing at home in the next couple of days, but his brother's tastes in partners were so varied that it was impossible to make even a small guess. For all Seto knew, it could turn out to be that Mokuba brought home the singular boy in the group that Mokuba was currently sending a wink towards. Seto snorted.

He heard the tentative tapping of skates on the ice coming through the entryway behind him.

Finally, he thought. The reason I'm here arrives.

He turned easily on his skates to face her as she stepped gingerly onto the ice. Ishizu stared with a mixture of uncertainty and nervousness at the sheer surface, her knuckles going pale where they gripped at the railing on the side of the rink. Her dark hair shifted over her shoulders from under the black knit cap she wore, mussed slightly from falling across the matching scarf.

He found himself pausing in spite of himself. She looked so incredibly focused, her deep blue eyes almost black in the uneven lighting from around the rink, little reflections from the ice dancing across her irises. Her tongue was out ever so slightly with her concentration as she eased the other foot onto the ice. His eyes couldn't fall away from the intensity of her focus, as though this ice were some dueling opponent that she was determined to master, and yet nervous at the prospect of it.

She let out a breathy gasp as one of her feet slipped forward a little more quickly than she had expected. He slid forward to grab her under the arm before she went down. Her eyes flickered up to him and then she looked quickly down, her shoulders drawing up slightly.

“Thank you,” she said, her breath ghosting from her lips. “A little...more slippery than I expected...”

“You've never been skating before?”

“There isn't really a multitude of options when you live in the middle of a desert.”

He felt a light shudder go through her and he frowned.

“You didn't have to come, you know.”

Ishizu looked up at him and smiled them, shaking her head.

“And miss a chance to help Mokuba get you out of your office? I don't think so.”

A burst of heat danced over his cheeks briefly. He glanced away and grunted, trying to ignore the way that her light laugh seemed to sparkle across the ice.

“Now help me learn how to do this,” she said, reaching her free hand up towards him. “I want to be able to keep up with you two.”

“Good luck keeping up with Mokie...I swear, the kid skates like a professional speed skater.”

As if to prove his point, his brother zipped past them with a flurry of ice sprayed over them, causing Ishizu to yelp and attempt to move out of the way, but lose her balance in the motion. Seto swore as he tried digging his skates into the ice, one hand snapping to the railing while the other was still gripping Ishizu under the arm in an attempt to keep her up. Her other hand had snapped instinctively into his coat as she almost fell and he almost went down with her.

After a brief tangle of limbs and gasping of breaths, they both managed to regain their balance without falling down. Of course, somehow they had ended up with Ishizu pressed very tightly against Seto's chest and his arm tight around her waist, so that he could feel her breath through the shoulder of his coat. Seto just stood there for a moment, holding her and trying to catch his breath. He was still so rattled from the near fall that he didn't realize how tightly he was holding her for almost thirty seconds. And during that thirty seconds, his eyes raised up to see his brother on the other side of the rink. Mokuba sent him a cross-eyed grin and mouthed “you're welcome” before zipping off to rejoin that little group of kids he had been flirting with.

He rolled his eyes.

I don't need your help, thanks, he thought towards his brother, but he couldn't help the brief warmth from spreading over his cheeks as he glanced down at the woman in his arms. She raised her eyes to his after a beat.

“Well that was close,” she said, giving him a small, tentative smile.

He found himself smirking back.

“Not really...do you really think I was going to let you fall?”

She laughed, a sound that reminded him of the bells on the sleighs out in the square.

“Well then,” she said, moving back from him slightly as she took both of his hands. “As long as I have you to catch me, care to skate?”

His smirk melted to a real smile.

“Let's just avoid Mokuba's showing off,” he said.

She laughed in agreement. Then, they started to make their slow, cold circuit around the ice rink, their entwined hands reflected in the ice below.


	2. Second

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Mistletoe  
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal  
> Pairing: Holyiceshipping (Rio Kamishiro x Durbe), implied Sharkbaitshipping (Yuma Tsukumo x Ryoga Kamishiro)  
> Characters: Rio Kamishiro, Durbe, Ryoga Kamishiro  
> Time Frame: Two years post series (everyone is in high school now)  
> Summary: After one too many boys trying to catch her under the mistletoe, Rio decides it's time to make a statement.

It was only the second of December and Kamishiro Rio was already ready to declare war on mistletoe.

She had completely lost count of how many times it had magically appeared in the doorway in front of her, and of course there would be someone waiting on the other side of the doorway, smiling that stupid, stupid grin that only one of _those_ guys could have. She had lost track of the faces that had appeared on the other side of the mistletoe and said something about what a coincidence it was to find her there, and did she know what the tradition was?

She had also lost track of how many persistent boys she had punched today.

“Finished on your heartbreaking spree?” her brother asked dryly as she flopped, seething, into the chair beside him.

“Don't you mean face-breaking spree?”

“That too.”

“As long as that godforsaken plant and this godforsaken season exists, then no. I will never be finished.”

She couldn't be sure, but she thought she saw Ryoga smirk to himself as he flipped the page of his book. She glared at him. She continued the glare for about a full minute before Ryoga finally sighed, slipped a bookmark between the pages, and tossed the book on his desk.

“Okay, what?” he said. “What do you want me to do? Challenge everyone in the school to a duel and if I win they stop harassing you with mistletoe?”

“God, no, I don't need you to do anything like that,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Then what, princess?”

“I just—how do I make them _stop_?” she said, her voice cracking unwillingly. “How many people do I have to slap before they realize that I'm not _interested_?”

Ryoga heaved a huge sigh.

“Probably all of them—multiple times,” he said. “Guys are stupid.”

Rio almost screamed, but she settled for letting her head drop down to the desk with a clunk so that she could moan into the wood. She could hardly believe that she had traded being a Barian Emperor for _this_ bullshit. At least the Barian seemed to be all completely uninterested in romance, or at the very least, had known better than to harass her. As a human, she wasn't exactly allowed to start executing people.

Her brother sighed again.

“Is there anything in particular about these guys that's really pissing you off?” he said.

“Besides the fact that they won't give up?”

Ryoga glanced at her, held her gaze. She glared right back at him, refusing to break the stare. Her brother, of course, would not be intimidated, and they just stared at each other without break.

She felt her shoulder slump a bit then.

“They won't look at me,” she whispered.

Ryoga blinked. “What?”

Her eyes dropped to her hands, laying palm up on her legs.

“They act cocky...they try to get me interested...but they don't... _look_ at me. I'm just...I'm Rio- _sama_ to them. They won't look at me like I'm a person. They think that I'm...better than them.”

She shrank further in on herself.

“I don't...I don't want that from someone.”

Ryoga didn't speak for a few moments. For a moment, she thought he might reach for her hand and squeeze it the way he had when they were children, to stop her from starting to cry. But he didn't. He just sighed, and began to tap his fingers on his book. Rio almost hugged herself like she was a child, feeling so tiny and weak all of a sudden.

“I guess there's one thing you _could_ try,” Ryoga finally said, but it sounded like the words were almost paining him to say. “But you're not going to like it.”

The spell was broken and Rio was back to her usually abrasive self. She twisted her head towards him.

“At this point, I'm willing to try anything. Out with it.”

Ryoga grimaced. He wouldn't meet her eyes and had started to flip the pages of his book over and over like it was a flip book.

“Guys are stupid,” he said. “They won't stop when a girl says they're not interested. They tend to stop if they think the girl is already spoken for, though.”

Rio's nose wrinkled with suspicion.

“What are you saying?”

“I'm saying that guys are assholes. They won't listen to a girl when she says she doesn't want them, but they'll listen if the girl has a boyfriend that tells them to stop.”

“You're saying I need to get a boyfriend?”

“I'm saying that you need to make a statement. Find someone that you don't really mind kissing under the mistletoe and kiss _them_. That should make them stop.”

Rio stared at him, her mouth hovering half open.

“You're not serious.”

Ryoga shrugged.

“I told you you weren't going to like it.”

“Of all the—I should—ugh!! Humans are so—infuriating!”

“Rio, you _are_ a human now,” her brother pointed out.

“That doesn't mean I have to like it,” she spat as though the words were poison venom that she could kill someone with. “I can't believe this. _That's_ what it'll take to get them to stop? _That's_ what I have to do?”

Ryoga picked up his book and pushed away from the desk, clearly deciding that it was in his best interested to vacate the room while his sister was venting. Next thing he knew, she could be sending out sparks of ice and freezing his blood and that was something he didn't want to deal with today.

“Look, it was just a suggestion, and I don't really like it either,” he said. He almost said “chill out” but thought better of it. “If you want, I can convince Yuma to do it for you. He'll be flustered, but he won't say no.”

Rio glared at him.

“I am _not_ kissing _Yuma_ ,” she said. “I don't need my lips to touch anything that my _brother's_ lips have touched.”

Ryoga flushed for a moment.

“What the hell, Rio, how did you—”

Rio rolled her eyes at him and he stopped midsentence. They _both_ knew that Yuma was about as difficult to read as a picture book.

“Whatever, just—do what you want.”

He tucked his book under his arm and scuffled out of the room as quickly as he could. She glowered at his back as he disappeared. Then she moaned again and dropped her head into her arms against the desk. This was so fricking stupid. Of all the ridiculous ideas—

Ugh, but he was probably right. Guys—especially _these_ guys—weren't going to give up as long as they thought she was single. She hated to think about it, but this was probably her best shot, or else she was going to be dealing with this the entire season.

 _Think, Rio, think,_ she ordered herself.

Who could she coax into doing this for her without worrying about them thinking too much about it? Alit and Gilag were completely out of the question. No way. Mizael would completely miss the point and just suggest that she stab anyone that annoyed her. She toyed briefly with Kaito but that kid was never in school, and even if he was, he wasn't the type that she would want to make that kind of request of. IV would _definitely_ do it but she did not want to deal with how much he would tease and make fun of her afterward. And no way was she asking either of his brothers. She had to think...if she could pick _anyone_ , who would she kiss? But her brain wouldn't function that far. Resisting her. She didn't want to deal with this.

She groaned again. This was shit. She hated this.

Ugh. There was nothing to do. She was just going to have to deal with this for the rest of forever—or really, just until Christmas season was over, but since it was only the second, she wasn't really keen on waiting that long.

She sighed and pushed herself up from the desk. No point in hanging around here any longer...she had just been looking for her brother, anyway, and it seemed like he had gone home without her. Or more likely, out with Yuma again.

She emptied her desk out into her book bag and slung it over her shoulder before heading for the door.

Her mind was still turning over ideas and plans and half-assed possibilities for trying to survive this that she didn't notice right away the shape that had appeared in the doorway until she had bumped into it.

“Ugh! Hey, why don't you watch—” she started.

“Oh, goodness, please forgive me, my lady, I didn't realize you were...”

Rio blinked as she realized who it was. Something made her heart flutter strangely for a moment. Durbe fumbled for a moment with his glasses, which had gotten askew when he had bumped into her.

“Oops. Sorry, Durbe...I wasn't looking where I was going.”

“No, no, please, my lady, it was my fault entirely. I should have—”

She held up her hands.

“Enough with the 'my lady' stuff, Durbe. I'm not your emperor or your princess anymore. We're just human teenagers now. Okay?”

Durbe blinked, frowning slightly.

“Our roles may change, but that won't change my loyalty to you, my la—Rio-sama.”

He changed the address midway through at her raised eyebrow.

“It's just Rio now, Durbe. Just Rio. Okay? You don't...you don't have to be our knight anymore. Okay?”

Durbe's eyes ducked away for a moment. It seemed, all of a sudden, that there was a static along her arms, making the hair on her arms raise up with a strange sort of tension. It occurred to her then that she and Durbe were practically alone in this classroom.

It also occurred to her that she was having trouble drawing her eyes away from his, even though he wasn't looking at her.

For a moment, his image as a Barian flashed across her eyes, the way that he had thrown himself in the way of that final attack from Vector, his dying cry, the relaxed, blissful look on his eyes as she had cried and he had tried to reassure her that it was okay, everything would be all right, he didn't mind dying for her.

She found herself rubbing her arms self-consciously, eyes dropping to the floor.

“I—what are you doing here, anyway?”

“My lord Nasch—I mean, Ryoga...san...told me as he passed that you were here and that you might require some assistance with something.”

Immediately, a flush rose to Rio's cheeks. That little meddling—she was going to have a talk with him later. But of _course_ he would think of Durbe. Loyal to a fault Durbe. He'd never say no if she asked him to do something like this, and he'd never take it the wrong way, either. Just a service to his lady, he'd think of it, and he'd be more than honored to serve. Dammit, why couldn't he just realize that they weren't Barian anymore; that there wasn't a hierarchy anymore, that he didn't have to serve them anymore, that he didn't—

She found that she was trembling, her shoulders shaking. Durbe blinked with surprise, his hands raising up slightly.

“A-are you all right, my la—Rio-sama? Are you all right?”

She pressed a hand to her mouth and closed her eyes. Over. Their time as Barian was over. There wasn't...they didn't have to live like that anymore, and yet Durbe kept...why did it make her so _sad_? Why did he...why did she want him to—to look at her?

“Durbe,” she whispered suddenly, her hand dropping slightly from her mouth. “Please. Call me Rio.”

“I...haven't I been?”

“ _Just_ Rio. Not Rio-sama, or Rio-san, or anything, just—just _Rio_. Please.”

She couldn't look at him. Not directly—she was afraid to look again and see in those dark gray eyes the same calm subservience that was always there. She didn't want to be looked at like that.

“I...I'm not sure I understand.”

“Dammit, Durbe,” she said through gritted teeth. “I just—I want you to—”

“My lady, if there's something I can do for you, I will do it presently, but I don't—”

Her eyes snapped up to meet his, trying to hold back tears that wanted to explode out of her. But his eyes dropped away almost immediately, as though he weren't allowed to meet her gaze.

_They won't look at me. None of them will look at me._

That wasn't what she had been angry about, she realized. The guys were annoying yes, but she hadn't been upset about _them_ not looking at her.

_You've never looked right at me, _she thought. _I want you to look at me. I want—I want you to see Rio. Not Merag.___

A tremble ran through her and she felt her throat choking up.

“Just—forget it,” she mumbled.

She ducked her head so that her bangs could hide her face and shoved past him, almost knocking him over.

“W-wait! Rio-sama!”

She wasn't listening anymore. She pushed herself to walk faster towards the lockers so that she could just get her shoes and go home and try to forget about this. Maybe she would be sick and stay home for the rest of the month.

She tried not to think about the tears that were rolling down her cheeks. She was trying so hard not to acknowledge them that she once again was not looking where she was going.

Rio turned the corner towards the lockers with a snap—and smacked right into someone again.

“Whoa! Sorry there,” said a male voice.

His hand closed around her shoulder, presumably to stop her from falling over, but she jerked back automatically, one hand jumping up to rub the tears from her eyes as quickly as possible. She glanced up between her fingers towards the new person she had somehow gotten mixed up with. She didn't recognize him; he must be from another class.

“Oh, Kamishiro-chan! Nice to see you!” he said with an exaggerated cheerfulness. “Didn't know you were here this late.”

 _Lying,_ she thought automatically, her Barian instincts kicking in. _He was waiting._

“Ahh, look up there, Kamishiro-chan! This must be fate!”

_Oh godammit._

She didn't have to look up to know that there just so happened to be mistletoe hanging from the door frame.

“I'm not interested,” she said, drawing back from him, hand clenching around the strap of her bag.

“Aww, but Kamishiro-chan, it's tradition! Come on, just one peck. For the season's sake.”

She met his eyes full on. He met hers back.

 _It's not enough,_ she thought. _He's still not looking at me like I'm a person. He's looking at me like I'm a prize._

She stepped back from him, but his hand was still on her arm from catching her before and he wasn't letting go. She could feel the ice beginning to congeal in her veins, the temperature dropping around them, and judging by the faint faltering of his smile, he could feel the cold tightening around him too. She knew that she should reign it in. She knew that she couldn't freeze this boy to death, it would be wrong and it would draw too many questions and she had to calm down but all she could think about was the ice that was starting to spread from her heart and creep up her skin like scales; it wouldn't be long before it began to encase the exposed parts of her arms and he would see it growing—

“Rio!”

The voice jolted her alert. The ice receded with her surprise as she glanced over her shoulder to see Durbe jogging towards her.

It took her half a second to realize— _he said my name. Just my name. Has he ever done that before?_

“I'm sorry I kept you waiting,” he said as he ran over to her. What? “Oh, is this a friend of yours?”

The boy had immediately dropped Rio's arm at the sight of Durbe, looking both miffed and embarrassed all at once.

“Sorry, Kamishiro-chan, didn't know you were waiting for somebody else...”

 _He's covering for me,_ Rio thought immediately. _Durbe is making the boy think—did Ryoga tell him more than I thought he did?_

Durbe didn't look directly at her, his eyes fixed on the boy across from them. There was the barest hint of protectiveness there, that familiar expression he wore whenever he was concerned for hers or Ryoga's safety. Her hands tightened on her bag.

And then she felt his hand, gentle, tentative, slipping onto her shoulder. A question.

Part of her was afraid to look at his eyes. Afraid to see what was looking back at her.

She looked up.

He was looking at her. Directly. There was no subservience there, no demureness, not even the barest flicker of his eyes away from hers in that servant-like way he always did. He looked at her.

And for the first time that she could remember, she thought she saw Durbe the human instead of Durbe the white knight of Barian.

Was he finally seeing Rio instead of Merag?

She saw, out of the corner of her eye, the mistletoe swinging back and forth over their heads. Back and forth, back and forth, stirred by the breeze from a faraway door opening and closing as the last students trickled home. The other boy was still standing there, dumbfounded by the silent conversation that seemed to be happening before his eyes.

_“Find someone that you don't really mind kissing under the mistletoe and kiss them. That should make them stop.”_

She didn't think about what she was doing. She just did it.

She pushed herself up onto her toes so that her nose bumped against Durbe's, startling his glasses, and she saw his eyes widen just before she closed her own and her lips crashed into his, pushing against him so that he was almost falling back against the door frame. For a moment, she thought he was going to startle away from her. But then he was curling his arms tentatively around her waist, steadying himself against her, she peeked through her eyelashes and found that his eyes were fluttering shut as he pressed into the kiss a little more deeply so that she could taste him fully and melt into the motion, her hands curling into the fabric of his sweater.

It must have only been a few seconds but it felt like a few years when they finally broke apart with an embarrassed jolt. Both pairs of eyes fell away from each other for a moment, cheeks heating with red.

She noticed, however, that his hands did not move from her waist, and hers didn't seem to be able to extract themselves from the knit of his sweater.

She swallowed once, her words gone for a moment. That boy was staring, open mouthed, and then he quickly seemed to recollect himself and take a quick step back. Durbe's eyes flickered to Rio's for a moment, and then away—but this time, not from subservience or demureness, but from...embarrassment?

“I...I'm afraid I don't quite understand,” he said.

She found herself smiling. She shrugged and nodded above their heads.

“You stepped under the mistletoe,” she said, as though that was an adequate explanation for years upon years of longing for him to look at her right in the eyes like an equal as she had longed for forever and ever, as thought that were an adequate explanation for the catharsis that had released from somewhere in the center of her heart from the taste of his lips finally on hers, something that, even if he had known what she had wanted from him before, they never would have been able to share as Barian.

The other boy had already scurried off, extracting himself from the awkward situation. Rio didn't care. Probably he would take the news that Rio had finally kissed someone to the rest of the school. It would probably be all over by tomorrow.

 _Good,_ she thought as she slipped her hand into Durbe's and smiled as she saw the pink rise to his cheeks for a moment and he rubbed the back of his neck. _I want everyone to know._

“So is this...is this what you were looking for?” Durbe whispered. “All this time...that's what you wanted?”

She twined her fingers into his.

“Yeah.”

And then,

“I-is this okay?” she whispered, as though she were a child asking if it was all right to take a cookie from the jar.

His eyes flicked down to their hands twined together. Then they rose up, met hers, and for the first time, she saw, there was nothing in between their gazes. He smiled. His whole face softened with the expression.

“This is better than okay.”


	3. Third

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Watching holiday specials  
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal  
> Pairing: Sharkbaitshipping (Tsukumo Yuma/Kamishiro Ryoga)  
> Characters: Tsukumo Yuma, Kamishiro Ryoga  
> Time Frame: Two years post series (they're both fifteen)  
> Summary: Yuma has a funny idea of what constitutes a date, but Ryoga's not sure he minds too much.

_He's cute,_ he found himself thinking for perhaps the hundredth time that evening.

Yuma hummed to himself as he bustled back and forth across the room, in and out of the kitchen and back and forth between the table and the living room. Ryoga sat back in the couch with one arm hanging over the back. He had already asked if Yuma wanted help, but Yuma had insisted that it was his turn to treat Ryoga, and so he should just sit there and relax.

Of course, Yuma had a kind of funny idea about what was a “treat.” Sitting in the house and eating junk food while watching cheesy holiday shows wasn't exactly the most interesting date idea in the books—well, except for the fact that he got to watch Yuma being incredibly adorable. That was a treat in and of itself.

He felt a pleasant heat rise to his cheeks, half smiling at Yuma bouncing around as he kept running back and forth bringing in all of the junk food he had collected onto the low table in front of the television. He hummed along to the jingles of the advertisements, his eyes bright and shiny as he went about the room, his bangs almost bumping into the paper snowflakes that hung from the ceiling in a mob. Apparently, he had made all of them, and considering the vast number of paper snowflakes, Ryoga couldn't help but be impressed.

Yuma finally finished piling the coffee table with mounds of junk food and then flung himself back into the couch, just in time for the holiday jingles and advertisements to turn into the opening bars of the show. He immediately flopped onto Ryoga's shoulder.

“Clingy as ever, I see,” Ryoga said, but he shifted his arm from behind the couch to drape over Yuma's shoulder anyway.

“Shhh, it's starting,” Yuma said, eyes glued to the screen.

Ryoga thought that maybe his eyes were going to be glued elsewhere for most of the night.

_Goddamn, why is he so cute?_


	4. Fourth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Snowball fight  
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh DM  
> Pairing: Nellshipping (Amane Bakura/Noa Kaiba)  
> Characters: Amane Bakura, Noa Kaiba  
> Time Frame: pre-series (before Noa's death, he's eight and she's seven)  
> Summary: Noa has never had a snowball fight before—it's not becoming of the young heir of Kaiba Corporation. Amane decides it's time to fix that.

Noa startled awake to the sound of a splat. He blinked a few times. Ugh, his mouth tasted funny. What time was it?

It took him a few seconds to find the clock and squint through the haze of sleep to see the glowing numbers. Only six in the morning? He was going back to sleep...

Splat!!

He jolted up at the sound. What was that?? Was it coming from the window?

He stared at the window, glazed over with frost and lined with snow on the wooden frame. There were still flakes spiraling past in the near darkness through the glass.

Splat!

Something smacked against the window and left chunks of snow behind. What was...

He slipped out of bed and padded barefoot to the window. He had to clamber on top of the dresser to get to it in the first place, and then he had to wipe off the smoky condensation with the sleeves of his pajamas before he could see outside. He pressed his nose to the icy glass and squinted down into his yard. At first, all he could see were mounds and mounds of snow, glittering and practically untouched. Except for that little rut there that was leading from the back hedge all the way to below his window...

Splat!

He yelped and jerked back at the thing that had exploded right in front of his face. Curiosity immediately overcame fear, however, and he returned to the glass with his face and hands pressed to it to peer down.

He don't know why he hadn't guessed in the first place, he thought as he found the culprit.

Amane was literally rolling over onto her back, clutching at her stomach, her white hair splayed out onto the snow. He had missed her because the pale blue of her snow gear and her white hair very nearly blended perfectly into the landscape. She was shaking as she giggled, a little bundle of winter clothes rocking back and forth in the drifts of snow.

Noa grimaced, feeling his cheeks warm at how startled he had gotten. After a beat of hesitation, he wriggled the window just wide enough so that he could call through it.

“Amane,” he said. “What are you doing?”

Amane settled back in the snow with her arms sprawled out as though she were about to make a snow angel—and in fact, she did start spreading her arms and legs back and forth to draw the image in the snow as she spoke, her words punctuated with giggles.

“Look at all the snow, Noa-kun!” she said. “Look, look! There's so much!”

She giggled again and paused in making her snow angel, sticking her tongue out so that the snow fluttering around her might fall into her mouth.

“I can see that,” said Noa. He shivered as a breath of winter crept through the crack in the window. His father would be so angry if he knew that he was opening the window in this weather—he'd remind Noa that there was no time for him to catch cold. He had so many things to do: school tests, violin recitals, more review of Kaiba Corporation to prepare him for later. Of course, his father wasn't home right now. He was on a business trip to America and wouldn't be home for two days.

“You should come out! We can have a snowball fight!”

“Huh?”

“A snowball fight!”

Amane popped up out of the snow like a lily, her hair and her knit hat matted with the flakes. She sat upright like a puppy, eyes shining up at him with curiosity.

“Has Noa-kun never had a snowball fight?”

Noa frowned.

“I don't think so.”

Amane's eyes widened.

“Then you have to come, you have to come! Come on, come on, come on! It's so much fun, we have to play!”

“Um....I don't know...”

Father would say no, he thought.

But his eyes were drawn by the shining mounds of snow, glittering like diamonds even in the cloudy day, and the shiny eyes of Amane looking up hopefully at him. He bit his lip. Amane sat up straighter as though somehow she could reach all the way up to his second floor window and bop her nose against his the way she did when she was trying to get him to say yes to whatever idea she had spouted off. She said that it was meant to distract him into a yes, although Noa didn't really know how that was supposed to work.

He melted a bit anyway—saying no to Amane was difficult.

“Okay,” he said. “I'm coming.”

“Yay!” Amane squealed, flopping back over into the snow and making a vigorous snow angel.

Noa laughed in spite of himself. He closed the window firmly shut and then clambered off of the dresser, padding down the hall.

Luckily, it was Sachiko who was on duty today, and she liked Amane. The woman smiled with a sparkle to her eyes when Noa asked her to bring him his winter clothes, and Noa had a feeling she had already seen Amane outside, and maybe even overheard their conversation.

Despite his protests, she helped him get bundled up.

“You can't do this all by yourself, Noa-kun!” she teased. “How are you going to get your scarf wrapped with your mittens on?”

“I don't need a scarf,” he mumbled.

“If you're going to be having a snowball fight, you need all the warmth you can get...all right, there you go! Now off with you—it's not polite to keep a lady waiting!”

Noa blushed and burrowed his face into his scarf as he scurried off to the patio door. He slid it open with some difficulty, finding that his bulky clothes made moving much more difficult. He wasn't used to getting this bundled; usually when he went out it was just with his one, heavy coat and maybe gloves and a hat. Sachiko had wrapped him up in two sweaters and a puffy, waterproof coat, plus snow pants and mittens and scarf.

Amane wasn't where he had left her. In fact, he didn't see her anywhere at all. He blinked. He hadn't taken too long, had he? Where had she gone? She wouldn't have gone home after a few minutes—that definitely wasn't Amane's style.

He frowned as he took a tentative, crunching step off of the patio and into the snow, sinking almost up to his waist immediately. He huffed softly with annoyance at how deep the snow was and how hard it was to maneuver in it. He shifted forward another step, parting the snow around him like the waters of a very thick lake.

“Amane?” he called. “Amane-chan, where are you?”

And then the snowball smacked him in the side of the head and he yelped, wheeling his arms as he almost tumbled over into the snow.

A burst of giggles erupted from somewhere to his left, and he turned, blinking through the flakes tangling in his eyelashes to see a pale face poke up from a hole in the snow and then quickly disappear.

Oh, so that's how it is, Noa thought, a fierce rush of competitiveness firing up in his chest.

He dropped down to his knees and burrowed into the snow so that he was hidden like Amane was, and then started to ball up the snow between his mittens. Once he had made a sizable pile of snowballs, he chanced a peek over the top of his snow hole.

A snowball whistled towards him and he ducked. He grabbed his own snowball and launched it towards Amane's hole—except that it seemed to curve in the entirely opposite direction from where he had been looking, and smacked harmlessly to the snow. Amane's hole roared with laughter.

“You're bad at this, Noa-kun!” her voice floated up into the sky.

Noa flushed, grimacing. He wasn't particularly good at getting thrown things to go where they were supposed to. However...he was pretty good at strategy.

The snow was deep enough that if he got on his hands and knees, he could hide completely in it as he burrowed through. And it was just breakable enough to pack into snowballs but still be relatively easy to dig through. With a mischievous smile growing on his face automatically, he started to slowly push his way through the snow in an arc, swinging around so that he headed for somewhere behind Amane. He heard a snowball fall somewhere behind him and knew that the plan was working—she still thought he was in his hole. His grin was getting wider and wider as he calculated how far around he needed to go to be behind Amane, paused in his digging, and made another snowball.

He chanced a peek over his tunnel of snow.

He saw Amane's head poke up, too, although he was almost behind her now and only saw the back of her head.

“Noa-kun? Are you still there?” she said.

She lobbed another snowball towards the hole and it landed in there neatly—she was a good shot. He'd have to remember that for this snow battle.

“I didn't make you angry, did I, Noa-kun? I'm sorry I saw you're bad. You're not bad at snowballs. You just need practice, okay?”

Noa tried so, so hard to still his giggles as Amane stood up in her hole, craning her neck to see if Noa was still in his original hole.

“Noa-kun?”

Noa hesitated, aimed, and....threw his snowball.

It smacked her in the back and she yelped, jumping up almost a foot and then crashing back into the snow, arms wheeling dramatically. Noa couldn't help but burst out into laughter, trying to hide it with his mittens pressed over his face.

Amane popped back out of the snow with cold-reddened cheeks and wide eyes, looking all around as though she were a chipmunk who had just heard a fox jump into the snow. She finally saw Noa's head of hair poking out of the snow, a green flag against the white.

“No fair, Noa-kun, you are good at this game and you pretended not to!”

Noa couldn't stop laughing, and then of course Amane was laughing too because there couldn't be a giggle without her dissolving into a rolling pile of laughs.

And then he stopped laughing when she lobbed another snowball at him and it hit him on the top of the head, sprinkling snow all down his face.

“Ugh, Amane! Don't hit the head!”

She just squealed with laughter and scrambled out of her hole, attempting to scurry away through the snow. Noa laughed as he too climbed out of his hole and gave chase, flinging sloppy snowballs at her as they ran.

Their laughs twisted up between snowflakes and into the sky, where it echoed against the blanket of clouds. It would be some hours before they were finally too tired to run around anymore, and fell, gasping, back into the snow beside each other.

“That was fun, right, Noa-kun?” Amane said, turning her head to smile at him.

“It was when you weren't smacking me in the face with snow,” he grumbled.

She giggled and turned onto her side so that she could grip his hand with both of hers.

“Your hands are cold, Noa-kun. We should go get some hot chocolate from maman.”

He smiled at her, her pale cheeks flushed with red and her hazel eyes glimmering with energy despite her gasping for breath.

“Sounds good,” he said. “Let's go, then.”

Amane didn't let go of his hand when they stood up and started to walk. He didn't take his hand away, either.


	5. Fifth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Overly bundled for the weather  
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh Arc V  
> Pairing: Darkrebelshipping (Yuto/Shun Kurosaki)  
> Characters: Yuro, Shun Kurosaki, Ruri Kurosaki  
> Time Frame: about six months before the Fusion invasion  
> Summary: Shun is not a cold weather person, but if Yuto's asking him to go out, he supposes he'll have to make an exception...

He was trying to pretend he didn't hear her giggling behind her hand every time she passed through the living room. If he did hear it, he would have to get up from where he had nestled himself under three blankets.

Ruri walked through again and paused behind the couch, snickering.

“Warm enough there, niisan?” she asked as she leaned against the back of the couch.

“Piss off, Ruri,” Shun said.

“Weren't you planning on going shopping for mom today? How are you going to do that under all your blankets?”

“It wasn't supposed to be five below when I promised her that...”

“Wimp.”

She knocked him lightly on the head and he half growled at her.

“Oooh, you get all snappy when it's cold! Wishing you could migrate, huh?”

“Don't you have anything better to do than bother me?”

Ruri laughed and ruffled his hair as though she were the older sibling instead of him, then she sauntered from the room with her hair swaying in that sassy way she did when she was trying to be obnoxious. He shifted just enough so that he could flip off her disappearing back, and then retreated back into his nest of blankets.

He was just starting to nod off when he heard the soft chiming of the doorbell ring through the house.

“Coming!” he heard Ruri shout, and her footsteps clomped heavily down the hallway—geez, she was so loud. The door opened in the distance and Shun heard the soft tones of voices. Then,

“Niisan! Yuto's here! Get your ass off the couch!”

Shun groaned and rolled his eyes, but he reluctantly untangled himself from the couch and draped the blanket over his head, drawing it tightly around him like a cloak before shuffling out towards the entry hall.

There was a breath of cold air on his face as he stepped out and he swore mentally—dammit, he hated the cold so goddamn much. Yuto stood just inside the door, smiling at something that Ruri had said. He looked like he was dressed so lightly for how cold it was outside; only dark jacket and a big red scarf, his hands tucked into his pockets.

“Ah, Shun!” he said, eyes brightening as he saw Shun appear. “Have you been sleeping all day?”

“More like sulking about the cold,” Ruri sniggered.

“Shut up, Ruri,” Shun grumbled. “Hey, Yuto...what's up?”

Yuto's hands came out of his pockets to fix his scarf and Shun shivered to see that he wasn't wearing any gloves—was he insane?

“I was planning on heading into town to do a few errands, and I wanted to know if you wanted to tag along,” he said. “We were going to try and finish our Christmas shopping today, right?”

“Oh, right...”

Shun had forgotten all about it; since he had been planning on grocery shopping for mom today anyway, he and Yuto had decided to do Christmas shopping too. He really didn't want to—it was so cold...

But Yuto looked so goddamn adorable in his long coat and scarf and his sparkling dark eyes that waited for an answer. His sister caught his eye and wiggled her eyebrows. Shun glared at her. He heaved a sigh.

“Fine,” he said. “Fine, we can go.”

“We don't have to,” Yuto said quickly. “I know it's pretty cold; we can reschedule!”

“No, no, it's fine. Just...just let me get my coat.”

Yuto and Ruri exchanged glances, and Shun didn't miss the way that they both tried to hide giggles as he turned and shuffled back towards the closet, dragging his blanket with him.

Bastards, he thought, but he half smiled anyway in spite of himself.

He reluctantly dropped the blanket off back at the couch and then headed for the closet, pulling out his long heavy coat. He grimaced, feeling like this wasn't going to be warm enough at all. It felt so cold under his fingers, not like the blanket he had just left. He hesitated for a moment, and then pulled out not one, but two sweaters to drag over his shirt first, before fitting the coat over the top of it. His arms felt kind of stuffed and tight, but at least he was warm. He shoved a hat over his mussed up hair and tucked his gloves under his armpit as he walked back towards the entry way, trying to wrap his scarf around him with some difficulty, hindered by the tightness of the three layers of fabric around his arms.

He was still struggling when he came back out into the hallway. Yuto's laugh at something Ruri had said faded as he turned at the sound of Shun's feet. For a moment, his face seemed to go blank with surprise, mouth half dropping open. And then a treacherous giggle escaped him and he clapped a hand over his mouth.

“What?” Shun said, glaring. “What?”

“You—you're so—poofy,” Yuto said, talking between giggles.

“You look like a marshmallow, niisan,” Ruri said. “Like a dark green marshmallow!”

Shun glared at them as he continued to try and get his scarf on with little success.

“Oh, screw both of you,” he grumbled. “Not all of us are fricking polar bears.”

Yuto was still giggling as he moved forward, taking the ends of Shun's scarf and wrapping it around him for him. He pulled the fabric lightly to keep it in place, grinning.

“You know we love you, Shun,” he said, smoothing out the length of the scarf across Shun's chest.

“Sometimes I wonder,” Shun said, rolling his eyes.

Yuto grinned, still playing with the ends of Shun's scarf. Then after a beat, he pushed up on his tip toes and kissed Shun lightly on the nose. Shun flushed immediately.

“There, you're all warm now,” Yuto laughed as he jumped back on his heels. “Come on, let's go!”

Ruri let out a whistle behind Shun as he rubbed his nose with the back of his hand instinctively.

“Get it, niisan,” she said.

“Oh, shut up,” he grumbled.

Yuto was already opening the door, and Shun groaned mentally, bracing himself for the cold wind to blast into him.

Well, at least Yuto was right—that much of him was warm after that...


	6. Sixth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Planning a family party
> 
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
> 
> Pairing: Angelshipping (Shou Marufuji/Jun Manjoume)
> 
> Characters: Shou Marufuji, Jun Manjoume
> 
> Time Frame: Two years post series (they’re both 21)
> 
> Summary: Whose idea was it for them to host the holiday party again?

“Oh my god, why?”

Shou rolled his eyes, but honestly, he kind of agreed with the sentiment. He tapped his pen on the table, staring at the list of names in front of them.

“Who’s idea was this again?” Manjoume asked, his arms sprawled across the table and his face pressed into the wood.

“Yours,” said Shou. “Technically.”

“I regret all of my life decisions. All of them.”

Shou sighed, but a little bit of a laugh came out with it.

“Come on, Thunder, we can do this, right? It’s just a holiday party.”

“A holiday party with everyone. Do we even have enough space?”

“That’s why we were doing it at the league building, remember?”

“There’s decorations and catering and invitations and everything and not to mention, Shou, I’m supposed to be participating in that tournament a week from now which is going to cut into all this set up time—”

“Jun,” Shou said, reaching across the table to grab his hand. “Breathe. You are going to make yourself pass out, lunkhead.”

Manjoume glared at him half-heartedly, but he sucked in a deep breath. Shou had to laugh a little bit.

“You know, we’ve literally faced the end of the world, right?”

“This might as well be the end of the world…oh my god, Shou, are those my brother’s names on that invitation list?”

“Pending your approval, yes.”

“Oh god, no, we are not inviting them. They’ll be a pain in the ass the whole night—did you know that they’ve been trying to get me to endorse my oldest brother’s law firm??? After they got mad at me for second place in that last tournament?”

Shou did know, because Manjoume had been half shouting about it for almost two weeks now, but he didn’t point that out.

“Got it, crossing them out,” Shou said instead, making a point to scribble the names completely out.

Manjoume pouted for a few more moments thinking about it, his head laying sideways on the table. Shou glanced up at him, pencil eraser against his lips.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’ll live, I guess…”

“Should I remind you again that you offered to plan this?”

“No, you definitely shouldn’t.”

Shou had to laugh a little as he returned to scribbling on lists.

“All right, I won’t, then.”

There was a brief moment of silence, punctuated only by the sound of Shou’s pencil on paper.

“Shou?” Manjoume said.

“Yeah, Thunder?”

“Um…thanks. For helping out. Since I was the one that offered to help plan the reunion party and you’re ending up doing most of the work…”

Shou just grinned at him.

“You can just owe me one,” he said mischievously and returning to his work.

Manjoume eyed him from under his bangs.

“Why don’t I like the sound of that…?” he said.

Shou just laughed softly, and was pleased to see a tiny smile quirk at the edges of Manjoume’s lips. Then his eyes dropped back to his paper, and they returned to the soft silence.


	7. Seventh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Putting up stockings  
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal  
> Pairing: Proctorshipping (Droite/Gauche)  
> Characters: Droite, Gauche  
> Time Frame: pre-series, they're both ten  
> Summary: That weird girl doesn't smile enough, he's decided. Maybe there's something he can do to fix that.

Droite groaned softly, turning in her sleep. She absently flung an arm over her closed eyes. Too early. She could tell. There was an edge to the coldness that told her that it was early in the morning. She didn’t have to look at her clock to know that it was before sunrise. Seventh of December—and the world was getting colder. She drew herself under the covers. They were thin and barely warm enough. The general issue for Heartland’s duel soldiers wasn’t particularly comfortable. She tried to stop the thought in its tracks; almost mortified at how she had found herself wishing for something better. She should feel lucky to have anything at all—before Heartland had found her, she had been sleeping on street corners.

She curled up into a tight ball back under the covers and tried not to think about the day ahead. Another long day of duel simulations and combat practice for the Number Hunters. She was still sore from the days before. She couldn’t count how many scars she had already from the very violent duel robots that forced her to use all of her physical skill as well as her mental skills if she was to beat them in a duel. She was…so tired. She should be asleep right now. She needed all the sleep she could—

A shoe squeaked on the metallic floor. Inside her room.

She was sitting up right and rolling into a crouch on the bed in only a second, the Duel Disk under her pillow already flipped up and clamping onto her wrist and flipping open, fingers dropping onto the deck, ready to defend herself—

The skinny shadow swore, arms wheeling as he stumbled and tripped over his own feet, crashing to the floor. Droite hesitated in the middle of her draw.

“…Gauche?” she said.

The boy looked up from the floor, his cheeks looking a little bit red.

“Uh,” he said. “Hi?”

Droite’s brow furrowed, but she let her arms drop back to her sides. Gauche was…annoying, but he wasn’t particularly dangerous.

“What are you doing in my room?” she said.

“Uuuuuh,” he said, still laying on the floor, looking almost shell shocked. “Nothing?”

She raised an eyebrow at him. He winced slightly.

“Uh, I was….wrong room?” he tried.

“You’re not fooling anyone,” she said. “Did you come to steal my deck? Is that it?”

He wouldn’t be the first one. She had found three different kids from other squads sneaking in trying to mess with her deck, so that they could ruin her combat scores in the testing. She was one of the top soldiers in the training facility and that meant she was on the road to being one of the first people out of this hell and back out into the real world—under the command of Mr. Heartland, of course, but anything would be better than this cold metal facility and its angry, overly competitive residents…

“What? No! Why the heck—no, that’s not why I’m here!”

Gauche snapped back up to a sitting position, his face almost going as red as his hair in indignation.

“What, then?” she demanded, sitting up straight. “You’re not trying to mess with my scores, are you?”

“Of course not! Ugh, this is why I—I was hoping you’d just be asleep so you could see it when you woke up, dammit…”

Droite’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“See what when I woke up?”

Gauche flushed a bright red and his eyes dropped to the floor. His arm rose to rub the back of his neck, eyes refusing to meet Droite’s.

“Uh….that,” he said, pointing with his other hand.

She blinked, eyes flickering in the direction of his finger, and she saw…

Her lips parted. Were those…what she thought they were?

They looked like stockings—the big red ones that were supposed to hang over fireplaces. The pair was a little…sloppy in shape, too thin at the top on one of them and the other too bulbous in the toes, as though they had been sewn together from random pieces of fabric in a hurry. There were little golden star stickers taped all over them at random intervals, some of them already peeling off. Someone had written a scribbly “Merry” on the top of one with a pen, and “Christmas” on the other.

“Your room is so cold and empty,” Gauche said loudly as Droite stared at them. “Well, everyone’s is. But yours is the worst. You don’t even draw on your walls or anything. So I thought you might need a little decoration! It’s Christmas and stuff.”

She blinked at the stockings. She looked at Gauche. Then at the stockings—then back at Gauche.

“You snuck into my room…to decorate it for Christmas?”

“Yeah, maybe,” said Gauche, crossing his arms. “I mean, yeah. Got a problem with it?”

He blinked, and then his face paled a bit.

“Aw, dammit, you don’t celebrate Christmas, do you? I shouldn’t have—I mean—well, you needed something with color in here anyway!”

Droite slipped her legs off of the bed, feet protesting at the cold floor as she stood up. She walked, slowly, one step, pause, another step, pause, until she was standing in front of the stockings. She touched one. It felt like…starchy. Like an old pair of sheets.

“Gauche, did you make these?” she said.

“I might have…”

She touched one of the shiny stars that was peeling off, and smoothed it gently back into the fabric with her finger. Her eyes wandered back towards Gauche. He was still sitting on the floor, cross-legged and cross-armed. He was jutting out his bottom lip at her in a petulant sort of way.

“If you don’t like it, you can take it down. See if I care.”

She looked back at the stockings. They were…bright, she thought. Bright and cheerful…and…

She pressed her hand against the fabric, feeling little tears spring to the corners of her eyes in spite of herself.

She could not remember…someone ever doing something like this before.

“No,” she said quietly, tilting her head down so that her bangs covered her eyes.

“Huh?”

“I said…no. I won’t take them down.”

She blinked back her tears before she let the curtain of bangs shift away, and straightened up so that she could look right at Gauche. His mouth opened slightly at the sight of her face. She could hardly believe the feeling herself—she had forgotten what it felt like to smile.

“Thank you,” she said. “Thank…you…”

Gauche stared at her for another moment longer. Then he grinned that huge, ridiculous, arrogant grin of his. He rubbed under his nose with the back of his finger, looking pleased with himself.

“Yup,” he said matter-of-factly. “Totally knew you were going to like that. You’re welcome, by the way.”

For the first time in a long while, Droite couldn’t help but laugh.


	8. Eighth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Decorating the tree  
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh DM  
> Pairing: Softshipping (Ryo Bakura/Shizuka Kawai)  
> Characters: Ryo Bakura, Shizuka Kawai, OC  
> Time Frame: post-series, about fifteen years after  
> Summary: Ryo and Shizuka have been pretty busy this holiday season, but they'll have to make some time to decorate the tree if they want any peace and quiet from their kids.

“Momma, momma, momma!”

The little red blur exploded into the hallway at the sound of the door and crashed into her knees, causing Shizuka to let out a squeak and almost fall over. Luckily the door was right behind her, so she was able to fall back against it for support even as the tiny arms latched tightly around her knees and the face pushed into her legs as though trying to push her over.

“Goodness, Amane-chan, what's all the commotion?” Shizuka laughed, patting her daughter on the head.

“Christmas tree!” the three year old shouted. “Christmas tree, Christmas tree, Christmas tree!”

Shizuka laughed softly and set her bag down beside the door so that she could get Amane under the arms and shift her into her arms with an awkward oof. Amane immediately latched onto her head, tugging a bit on Shizuka's bun, her little face pressed against the side of her mother's head. She was a tiny thing, barely three feet tall, with her bright red hair pulled into a pair of low ponytails, her father's peridot green eyes sparkling under her bangs. Shizuka laughed softly as she brushed the bangs from her daughter's eyes.

“You need a hair cut,” she said.

“No! Christmas tree!” Amane insisted, her fingers tugging on Shizuka's bun.

“Okay, okay, careful there,” said Shizuka, reaching up to untangle Amane's fingers from her hair.

Ryo appeared then, padding out of the hallway with a basket of laundry piled high. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and he shifted his basket so that he could see Shizuka around the pile of clothes.

“You're home early,” he said, smiling.

“Mariko-chan wanted some extra hours, and I had mentioned that we were planning on decorating the tree, so she shooed me out.”

Ryo smiled with a soft laugh.

“Not a moment too soon—I think Amane-chan is ready to explode!”

“I can tell,” said Shizuka. “Do you need help finishing that first?”

“No, it's fine; I'm just putting it in and starting it. I'll meet you in the living room—I set everything up, and Hideyoshi is waiting patiently.”

“Tree, momma, tree!” Amane said again, patting her mother on the head to remind her that there was a tree to be decorated.

“I'm going, sweetie, I'm going,” said Shizuka.

Ryo's eyes softened and he smiled that gentle smile of his that she loved so much. She slipped out of her shoes and stepped up into the entry way, meeting Ryo for a brief kiss before she hefted Amane further into her arms and padded out towards the living room.

Hideyoshi sat quietly beside the Christmas tree, flipping through a picture book and pausing at each page to stare at the contents. He looked up when his mother appeared, his short white hair shimmery like tinsel in the light. He smiled the way that his father did, a quiet, almost distant kind of smile as the six-year-old pushed to his feet and toddled over to meet his mother. Shizuka knelt down to hug him with her free arm.

“I'm home, Hideyoshi-kun,” she said. “Did you have a good day?”

He nodded.

“Gonna tree, Hide-nii, gonna tree,” Amane said in her loud voice. “Tree, tree, tree!”

“All right, all right!” Shizuka said with a laugh, setting Amane down. “Here we go.”

She shifted into a crosslegged position and pulled one of the boxes by the couch towards her. She popped it open. Amane and Hideyoshi immediately darted over, their little hands gripping the sides of the box so that they could stare inside at the ornaments, their mouths large “o's” of awe at the shiny things inside.

Shizuka carefully drew a red plastic orb from the box, dangling it on one finger. Amane's eyes were wider than the ornaments as she reached out to grab it in her tiny hand.

“Careful, now,” Shizuka said. “Like this, okay? The hook is sharp.”

“Kay.”

Amane did it carefully like she was told, and then raced over to the tree at full tilt so that she could put the first ornament on. Shizuka selected one for Hideyoshi and the tiny boy ambled more slowly over to the tree, while Amane was already racing back for another one.

Shizuka had given Amane her second ornament when Ryo appeared. He flopped down beside her, his hand dropping on top of hers.

“They enjoying themselves?” he asked.

“I think so,” said Shizuka. “Amane, slow down, let your big brother do a few.”

Ryo reached over her to pick up another ornament and hand it to Hideyoshi. Then, when Amane came back, he flashed her a huge grin before grabbing her under the arms and dropping her on his shoulder. Amane squealed with delight at having been caught, kicking her arms and legs out with excitement.

“I've got you now,” Ryo laughed, tickling her under the arms.

“Daddy monster, daddy monster!” she squealed. “Help, momma, help!”

Shizuka laughed as Ryo stood up with Amane still in his arms and twirled her around. Amane squealed with excitement, waving her arms around.

“Would Amane like to put a few ornaments near the top of the tree?” Shizuka asked, pulling out another ornament.

“I think so,” Ryo said. “Wouldn't you like to, Amane-chan?”

“Yeah!!”

Shizuka passed the ornament up, and Ryo carried Amane over so that she could hang the ornament higher up than she could reach herself.

“You want to go up too, Hideyoshi-kun?” Shizuka asked.

Hideyoshi nodded and stretched his arms up. Shizuka stood up with a light “oof,” knees cracking slightly. She hefted Hideyoshi into her arms and then leaned down to pick up another ornament.

She carried Hideyoshi over and he reached all the way towards the top to hang it from a branch. His whole face lit up with triumph, seeing his little orb swinging from the very top of the tree.

Ryo and Shizuka made a few back and forth trips like that, until the tree was almost full of ornaments. Hideyoshi was placing a particular favorite, his little dove, on the tree, and Amane had gotten up onto Ryo's shoulders with her legs wrapped around his neck, when Ryo leaned a bit around to smile at Shizuka around the branches.

Shizuka smiled back before leaning over herself to kiss him briefly on the lips.

“Merry Christmas,” she said.

“Stole my line,” said Ryo, laughing.

The tree sparkled between them, and the kids' laughter danced between the ornaments. It was another lovely winter's day.


	9. Ninth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Ruining the holiday dinner  
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX  
> Pairing: Destinyshipping (Ed Phoenix/Takuma Saiou)  
> Characters: Ed Phoenix, Takuma Saiou  
> Time Frame: four months post series  
> Summary: Technically, Saiou is still too weak and prone to seizures to be out of bed, but Ed's been doing all the cooking lately, and he wants to try and surprise him at least once this Christmas season.

The first thing Ed thought was, something's burning. The second was oh no, is he—

He dropped his bag and fled across the room, down the hall, and burst into the kitchen. He coughed once at the slight haze of smoke and there was a brief moment of panic where he thought it's on fire, how is it on fire, did I leave it on last night after dinner—

And then he realized that it really wasn't that smoky at all, and Saiou was standing in front of the stove, waving at the smoke with his hands like a child. He flinched a bit at the sound of Ed's cough and glanced over his shoulder. He smiled sheepishly.

“Um...welcome home?” he said.

“What happened?” Ed said, his heart still hammering in his chest. “Saiou, I said I would make something when I got home...”

“I was trying to surprise you,” Saiou said, poking at the pan with his spatula. There was a wince-inducing scratching sound in response to the spatula scraping across the pan. “I...may have misread how high the stove was supposed to be.”

Ed blew out with a huge sigh, slumping against the door frame for a moment. He still felt like he was going to have a heart attack, but the greatest panic had faded.

“You shouldn't even be out of bed,” he said irritably. Now that the shock was gone and relief was flooding through him, he was present of mind enough to be upset. “Are you feeling all right?”

“Just a little dizzy. I'm fine.”

“Those two sentences don't go together, Saiou...please sit down...”

Ed marched across the kitchen and took Saiou by the elbow. Saiou blushed a bit, embarrassed, but he let Ed sit him down at the kitchen table. Ed checked on the stove—well, it was off, now, but whatever Saiou had been trying to make in that pan was...well beyond help now. Ed poked at the pan with the spatula and got a bunch of black charred stuff crumbling out. He grimaced as he removed the pan and took it over to the sink, filling it up with water to soak.

Will that even wash out...?

“I could have sworn it said high,” Saiou muttered from the table, and Ed glanced over to see him poring over the cookbook.

The shock and momentary anger from that shock had both passed now, and Ed just felt kind of loose, as though strings holding him up had just been cut. He had to smile, feeling a bit of a relieved giggle try to force its way out of him.

“Seriously, though,” he said, trying not to laugh. “You don't have to cook, Saiou—you and I both know you don't know what you're doing even when you're not sick.”

“I'm not sick,” Saiou insisted. “I'm just...tired.”

Not sick...what does he call his seizures, then?

Ed just smiled, though, relieved that nothing was wrong. Saiou frowned at the cookbook, squinting at it.

“See, yes, it does say high heat—oh, wait. That's the other recipe.”

Ed covered his mouth to try and stall his laugh, but it came out anyway. Saiou looked up, looking a bit miffed. But a tentative smile grew on his face too.

“Fine,” said Ed, leaning against the counter. “Fine, okay, you can cook if you want—but let me help okay? It's more fun if we do it together, right?”

“I suppose,” Saiou said. “I will surprise you eventually, though.”

“Wait until you're better,” Ed said, shaking his head with another chuckle. “Come on, let's see what we can do with what's left of...whatever that was.”

Saiou raised an eyebrow at him for the jibe, but then he smiled that quiet smile of his, and nodded.

“All right,” he said. “Let's do that, then.”


	10. Tenth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Hot Chocolate  
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh Arc V  
> Pairing: Appleshipping (Rin/Yugo)  
> Characters: Rin, Yugo  
> Time Frame: pre-series (they're both ten)  
> Summary: Hot chocolate is a rare treat for the children of Commons, and Yugo is determined to find something that will make Rin smile.

“Yuuugooooo, what are we doingggg?” Rin whined.

“Just keep your eyes closed, okay??” Yugo said. “This is gonna be amazing, I promise! Oh, and you gotta be quiet!”

Rin puffed out her cheeks, but she didn't open her eyes. Yugo paused at the end of the hallway, looking both ways. This was gonna be tricky to swing—if the other kids heard them leaving, he'd get caught by Mariko-sensei and the operation would be off. He bit his lip. Okay. Now was good!

He tugged on Rin's hand, and Rin trotted after him, her short hair bouncing with each step.

The hall was long and dark, and Yugo had to shudder. It was so cold. He had overheard Mariko-sensei talking with someone on the phone the other day about the heater. He didn't totally get it, but it sounded like the heat was turned off. Again. It was freezing here, and he knew that Rin was probably upset about being pulled out from under the covers.

He skirted some of the squeakiest boards on the floor, careful to guide Rin around them so that they would stay quiet. The windows were drawn with the thin curtains, but he could still see the moon glimmering through the black fabric. He shivered again as they passed under one of the windows and hit a pocket of cold. He could feel Rin's icy hand shudder too.

“This had better be important, Yugo,” she hissed.

“It is, it is, I promise!” Yugo said.

They had reached the end of the hall. Yugo pushed through the door into the tiny kitchen. It was dark, but a little tiny bit warm than the other rooms since there were no windows. Yugo closed the door behind them.

“Can I open my eyes yet?”

“Not yet!”

Yugo dropped her hand and scurried across the room to the cabinet where he had hidden his prize. He popped it open and reached in for the pair of Styrofoam cups. Good, they were still steaming a bit!! He hadn't been too slow after all.

He sniffled through his runny nose as he turned back towards Rin.

“Okay, open 'em!”

Rin's eyelids flickered, and she squinted between her eyelashes. Then her eyes flew open and her mouth dropped wide.

“Yugo,” she hissed. “Is that...”

“Hot chocolate!” Yugo said triumphantly. “There was a guy in the park above just handing it out—I told him I had a friend waiting for me and he gave me two!”

“Y-you went up to that Tops park?? Why??”

“Not important, come on, share this with me!”

Rin glared at him, eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“You didn't steal that, did you?”

“What??” Yugo said. “I don't steal things!”

Rin raised an eyebrow.

“That was one time.”

She tapped her foot.

“Okay, like...four times. But this time I definitely didn't steal anything. I promise! Come on, don't you want some?”

She frowned. For a moment, her scolding face kind of wavered, and he could see her nose flaring a bit to smell the hot drink. He held one out towards her.

She gave in.

“Ugh...fine, okay. Since you went to so much trouble for it...but that was kind of rude to just get it for us, don't you think?”

“I only have two hands.”

She shrugged in acknowledgment, and took the cup into her hand. He distinctly saw her face lit up at the warmth against her hand, and he grinned, feeling his chest swell up.

They clambered onto the bench against the table and sat across from each other, just holding the warm drink between their hands for a moment and enjoying the feeling of it, the steam billowing warmly into their faces. Yugo tried a sip and almost dropped the whole thing when it burned his tongue.

“Ugh!! It's really hot, Rin, be careful!”

“You dork! You have to let it cool for a long time first!”

But she was laughing—she was laughing! Yugo felt triumph swell in his chest.

Mission accomplished, he thought, as both of them started to sip very carefully and slowly at the chocolate, enjoying the heat spilling through them. And I didn't steal them.

Rin didn't have to know that he had gone up there with the intent of stealing...nah, she was smiling, and that was the only thing that mattered.

That was the only thing that mattered.


	11. Eleventh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Secret Santa gift exchange
> 
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh DM
> 
> Pairing: Polarshipping (Katsuya Jonouchi/Mai Kujaku)
> 
> Characters: Katsuya Jonouchi, Mai Kujaku, Yugi Mutou, Anzu Mazaki, Seto Kaiba, scattered others in background
> 
> Time Frame: three years post series
> 
> Summary: It's not a coincidence that they somehow ended up with each other for the gift exchange, but Mai's not sure she minds Anzu's blatant meddling.

She had only barely seen this group, talked to them, or even sent a text message to any of them for almost two years, only just getting back into contact about a year ago. And yet, it felt as though nothing at all had changed.

Mai found herself laughing for the first time in ages at the sight of Honda and Otogi, who had both already had a bit too much and were currently singing Christmas carols with their arms slung over each other. She stood only half alone in the corner. Ishizu and her brothers were nearby and talking animatedly to Yugi and Ryo about something archaeological, and every now and then the conversation would turn to something that Mai could participate in and then she would smile and join in, but when it turned to other things, she would return to her drink and looking out at the party room at the festivities. So she was sort of alone, but...for the first time in a really long while, she didn't feel at all lonely.

The party had just about hit its peak point and Mai knew it would start petering out slowly from there. Anzu was dancing with Miho to the pop covers of Christmas songs from the speakers, and somehow Kaiba and Shizuka had started playing Duel Monsters on one of the tables, having shoved the drinks and chips out of the way to have space for the cards. Mokuba leaned over them, pumping his fist up and down as though goading on whatever fight they were having. Even Pegasus was over there, pointing at some cards in Kaiba's hand and causing Kaiba to glare and snap at him, pulling his cards away as though to say “shut up I don't need your help.”

Mai took another sip of her drink. She was just considering refilling when Anzu finally released Miho and ran over to the speaker system to grab the microphone.

“Okay, everyone, attention please! It is now time for the gift exchange!! Please let's try to keep this semi-organized!”

She flipped open her notepad and glanced down it.

“All right, first off...who was the secret Santa for Miho-chan?”

For a moment, no one spoke, but then Mokuba elbowed his brother in the gut and Kaiba swore at him.

“It was my niisan!” Mokuba shouted. “He's being shy!”

“Mokuba, shut up,” Kaiba said. “This is fricking stupid—”

“I'll just give it to her for you,” Mokuba said, snagging the small gift and grinning cross-eyed at him.

Kaiba just glared at him again, but Mokuba was already skipping around the table to present the little silver package to Miho. Miho, for her part, was suitably excited, with her eyes lit up as she pulled the wrapping open.

“Ah!! Is that....”

“Limited edition Capsule Monsters, yup,” Mokuba said, looking very impressed with himself. “Don't thank my niisan, he didn't know you liked Capsule Monsters til I told him.”

“Well, Miho thanks both of you!” Miho said, throwing her arms around Mokuba.

A laugh rolled around the room and even Mai had to chuckle. Kaiba looked so incredibly uncomfortable. It was a rare occurrence for the usually in control CEO.

“All right, next,” Anzu said. “Who was Ishizu's secret Santa?”

“Oh, that was me,” Yugi said. “Ah, here you go, Ishizu-san.”

He passed the small box over to her, and Mai couldn't quite see what it was when it was opened, but she thought it was probably a necklace. Ishizu thanked him, but Anzu was already moving on and so the sound was swallowed up by the commotion as Otogi threw his gift across the room at Rebecca, who was just coming out of the bathroom. She managed to catch it, but her face went red and she started almost shouting across the room at him to watch what he was doing and just walk over to give it to her like a normal human being.

“This is getting pretty unorganized already, probably,” said a voice beside Mai.

Mai jumped a little.

“Jou! When did you get there?? You're going to give me a heart attack...”

Jonouchi grinned at her from where he leaned against the wall, hands behind his head.

“I've been here for like...two minutes.”

“Then say something, you ass,” she muttered. For a moment, she almost punched him on the shoulder, but then she hesitated, feeling as though she...weren't allowed to touch him like that, even in play. Her shoulders tightened at the memory of his face, outlined by sickly green light, how he had smiled in her arms and reached up to cup her face and tell her over and over that it was okay, it was going to be okay—she should have been the one comforting him. He was the one who had been dying. And it had been her own fault.

She ducked her eyes away from him. Something about him in her peripherals seemed to slump a bit, and his arms dropped to his sides. Her heart clenched. Dammit, she...she wasn't supposed to be acting like this. Not with Jou. Hadn't they started talking again a year ago? She should be....healing by now. Of all the group, he had been the one she had stayed in contact with. She should be able to look at him without seeing him...dying.

“So, hey...Mai,” he said. “I've been meaning to...”

“All right, so who's Mai's secret Santa?” Anzu called into the microphone. “Come on, speak up, I'd like to keep this moving~”

There was a brief moment of relative silence—relative because some people were still talking and arguing in groups.

Jonouchi tapped Mai on the shoulder.

“That's me,” he said. “I mean—I was the one that was your secret Santa.”

Mai blinked, glancing up at him.

“But...huh?” she said. “But I was yours. Aren't we supposed to get different people?”

They stared at each other for a moment. Was Jonouchi...blushing? Mai's eyes darted over to Anzu. The girl was grinning deviously at her, and winked.

“Ah, it looks like Jou and Mai somehow ended up being each other's secret Santas! So we'll leave them to it~ Who was Marik's secret Santa?”

Mai flushed a little bit, feeling the heat rushing to her ears as well as her cheeks.

“Dammit, Anzu...” she muttered.

She lifted her eyes to Jou, who was barely able to look at her himself. He was so red—completely beet red, she thought.

“Um...Mai...” he said. “I...uh...”

Mai let out a tiny, soft sigh. She pulled her little gift from her pocket and held it towards Jonouchi.

“Here,” she said. “If yours embarrasses you so much, you can open mine first?”

Jonouchi ducked his head sheepishly and accepted the little box. He pulled the wrapping off carefully, without ripping, sliding it off with surprisingly nimble fingers. Mai found herself staring at his hands. They were...a little rough, she thought. Someone who had had to work with his hands on occasion. There were tiny little scars on some of his fingers, as though he had been cut picking up glass, and heavy calluses on his finger pads. She felt, for a moment, a suddenly overwhelming need to grab his hands, to twine her fingers into his, to feel that roughness, that strength, against her own palms.

Jonouchi popped the tiny box open.

“Oh wow,” he said, lips parting. “This is that new Red-Eyes card—but how did you—”

“Tournament prize,” she said, ducking her eyes, a little embarrassed. “I know, kind of lame. I didn't actually go out and buy anything. But I thought you would appreciate that, you know?”

She chanced a glance at him.

Those hazel eyes were shining at her, with all of that warmth and puppy-like happiness that she had fallen in love with. She blushed at the thought, but she didn't push it away. Yes, fallen in love with. She had fallen deeply, madly in love with this dorky human incarnation of a golden retriever, and she wanted to hold his hands with hers and press her lips to his and she wanted to see those eyes shining at her for the rest of her life.

If only she deserved that, she thought. If only he...would feel the same.

Jonouchi hugged her. She flinched at first, but then she let out a huge sigh, sinking into the deep embrace of his arms, just soaking in the feeling of his strong arms holding her up and supporting her. She slid her own arms around his waist, trying to capture the feel of his weight in her arms, supporting him back.

He's so warm, she thought, pressing her face into his shoulder. So...warm...

Jonouchi pulled away with a bit of a start, his face looking red, but still smiling widely.

“It's not lame,” he said. “This is amazing!! This card is super hard to get—and you won a whole tournament to get it! That's amazing!”

Mai blushed in spite of herself. She definitely couldn't tell him—that she hadn't intended to participate in that tournament until she had seen that prize. That she hadn't been about to duel in that tournament until she had decided she wanted that card—because it was something that belonged to Jonouchi.

Jonouchi was still beet red, and Mai didn't understand why. He tucked the card carefully back into its box and then the box into his pocket. He pulled his own little gift out of his pocket then—a small, unwrapped black box that just fit into his hand. He was blushing so badly that she thought she could see the heat radiating off of him.

“What did you get that's so embarrassing?” she laughed. “It's not a sex thing, is it?”

“A-ugh what?? N-no, why would you say something like—”

“I'm kidding, Jou, I'm kidding,” she laughed. “Whatever it is, I'm going to love it, okay? So you don't have to be all embarrassed.”

She wanted to reassure him by touching his cheek, but felt, again, as though she weren't allowed to. She had probably ruined any chance she had with him by joining the Orichalcos soldiers all those years ago.

Jonouchi cleared his throat.

“Mai,” he said. “I...we've been...I feel like we've really been getting closer this last year...like we've, ah, we've seen a lot of each other, and lately, I've been—thinking...”

Mai waited patiently for him to stop fumbling over his words.

He was halfway through his next sentence when her eyes snapped to the black box and all at once, she thought she felt comprehension snap through her like a whip.

“And I just—I've been thinking that—I want to spend even more time with you, and I want to see you more, and I don't know, this was probably a bad place to do this but I thought maybe if I did it as part of the exchange I wouldn't chicken out.”

Mai felt tears springing to her eyes and she covered her mouth with her hands. Oh, he wasn't...could he possibly be...?

Jonouchi fumbled with the box for a moment, and then he finally popped it open. He was. He definitely, definitely was, she thought with tears in her eyes.

A ring sparkled back out at her.

“Mai, would do—do you want to—I mean,” he fumbled. “Do you want to...marry me?”

Mai grabbed his face between her hands and kissed him. For a moment, he jolted, and he dropped the box to the floor. But then his strong hands were wrapping around her waist and hers were around his shoulders and they were melting into each other until they weren't sure where one started at the other began.

When they broke apart to gasp for breath, they just sat there for a moment, staring at each other, cheeks flushed.

Someone applauded. Mai remembered with a jolt where they were as the applause started rolling through the room, and a few people let out hoots of approval.

Jonouchi swallowed.

“So...was that a yes?” he said.

Mai smiled at him. She leaned down to pick up the fallen box and without moving out of Jonouchi's arms, slid her finger into the ring before holding it between them and looking at it sparkle.

“That was a yes,” she said.


	12. Twelvth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: opening presents
> 
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's
> 
> Pairing: Distantshipping (Luka/Rally Dawson)
> 
> Characters: Luka, Rally Dawson
> 
> Time Frame: two months post Dark Signers arc
> 
> Summary: Rally's never actually exchanged gifts for Christmas before....

“Rally!! Rally-kun, hold on!”

Rally paused in the middle of slipping his school shoes back into their locker, wincing in spite of himself at the sound of his name. He ducked his head instinctively so that maybe some of his long bangs might obscure the marker—not that that would fool anyone, they all knew it was there, but he felt like he needed to try. He felt kind of vulnerable without his hat—it wasn't allowed at school.

His eyes flickered up from under his bangs. That was...Luka. Luka was the one running towards him. She had that same cheerful smile on her face and the bright sparkle in her hazel eyes that brought a faint warmth to his cheeks for reasons he didn't quite understand. He felt the weight, suddenly, of the silly little package in his coat pocket, wrapped up in notebook paper. Would this be a good time to—no, no, he had already decided it was probably not a good idea to give it to her...

She stumbled to a stop in front of him, almost tumbling towards him for a moment. His hands snapped up automatically to try and catch her, but she had already righted herself by grabbing her own knees, leaning on them to catch her breath.

“You move so fast, Rally-kun! Aren't you going to stay for tennis club?”

“Well, I...I didn't...”

He didn't really want to go back. The only reason he had joined was because Luka had invited him, but he wasn't very good at it, and all of the other kids gave him dirty looks when they thought he wasn't looking. They whispered a lot too and he was certain he knew why. He scratched absently at his marker—a bad habit that Taka had told him to try and stop.

“Do you have something to do after school?” Luka asked, blinking at him as she stood up.

“K-kinda...I have to help out in the shop, you know!”

It was only half a lie. He was supposed to be working with Taka and Nerve and Blitz, but of course, as Nerve had told him more than once, “school and school-related shit come first, all right?”

He knew he should probably be enjoying this—after all, the older guys had never gotten a chance to go to school, and they were really excited for Rally, and Rally had been kind of excited too, especially knowing that Yusei's friends who had helped in the Signer war would be going there too.

But he stuck out like a sore thumb with his cheaply done hair cut that was already grown out too far, and his worn out clothes, and especially his marker, as someone had actually screamed the first time she had seen Rally walk into class. She had actually been about to call Security on Rally—Security!! Rally shuddered just to think about it.

Luka stopped her, though, he remembered with a start. She had grabbed the phone out of the girl's hand and waved it at her while she scolded like she was the girl's mom, reminding her that Rally was a classmate and she shouldn't be so rude.

Luka was still smiling at him, although she looked a little disappointed.

“Aw! That's too bad...Lua and I were going to go to a Christmas party at Class C after clubs and we wanted you to come.”

Rally ducked his head.

“That's...probably not a good idea...”

Luka blinked at him, frowning with confusion.

“What? Why not?”

He rubbed his toe on the floor, making his raggedy boots squeak.

He couldn't count how many times lately he'd found tacks inside his shoes. He had to always double check that the locker was locked if he didn't want to get pricked. And he had found notes shoved in the locker anyway that had nasty things written on them, telling him to go home back to Satellite. Nasty words written on his desk that took him hours to clean off. Homework and books that got stolen and thrown into the snow. He wasn't quite sure if this whole school thing was really such a good idea...

His eyes flickered up to Luka again, who was waiting for an answer. Kind, sweet Luka, who had never once looked down on him for being from Satellite. She had greeted him that first day with so much excitement—her and her brother had practically been jumping up and down from their seats when he was introduced to the class, and Luka had immediately run up to him during break to formally introduce herself and tell him how happy she was to meet him. She and Lua had taken him to a cafe right after school and he couldn't remember ever having so much fun. She always checked in with him if he looked like he was having trouble with the lesson, and she made things make a lot more sense than the teacher did, taking so much time out of her day teaching him the things he didn't understand. She had always been so nice to him, he thought as he played nervously with the little package in his pocket.

And he had started hearing what some of the other kids were saying about her because of it...

“Um...Luka...I, um...”

“What?” Luka asked, looking concerned. “Is something wrong? Are you okay?”

“I, um...I don't think you really want to hang out with me anymore.”

“Huh?”

“It's just—I don't want to make any trouble for you and Lua, because I do that a lot—I make trouble for everyone, even Yusei. I wouldn't like it if you got into trouble because of me.”

“What are you talking about, Rally-kun?”

He hunched his shoulders instinctively, automatically.

“I just don't want...people to dislike you because of me. I mean—they don't say very nice things about me, Luka, and I don't want to get you and Lua into any trouble with anyone else because of—just—I should go.”

He fumbled his bag over his shoulders, ducking his head and turning around, trying to walk as quickly as possible out the door, before Luka could catch up.

But Luka was quick for her size, and she ran around to block of Rally's exit.

“Hang on a minute,” she said, frowning with her hands on her hips. “What's this about? Is this about some kids bullying you?”

“I...”

Luka's whole face narrowed and her hands tightened on her hips.

“Rally, do you think I care what they think? We're friends, aren't we?”

He blinked.

“Well...yeah...”

“Then there's no issue!”

Her face smoothed out immediately, and she smiled brightly.

“But if you don't want to come to the Christmas party because people are being mean, then that's fine! You and Lua and I can go someplace else.”

“Oh, but I don't wanna—”

“And I don't want to go anywhere where there are people that make my friends uncomfortable,” she said, sounding very matter of fact and smiling at him. “But then, if you're not going to go, you can just open this now!”

And she plucked a small package out of her coat and held it out to him, her eyes as shiny as the silver paper that it was wrapped with.

“Merry Christmas, Rally-kun!” she said.

He flushed bright red.

“L-Luka, you didn't have to...”

“Are we friends, Rally?”

“Well, yeah...”

“Then I did have to!! Come on, open it, open it!”

Rally took the package from her gingerly, feeling as though he weren't allowed to mar the shiny silver paper. The paper alone seemed so fancy, he almost felt dumb about his own weird wrapping job...

“Um...”

“Come on, open it! I want to see what you think!!”

Rally blushed. He started to pick at the ribbon, and then paused to dig into his own coat pocket.

“T-then you open yours too!” he said, thrusting the little package wrapped in notebook paper at her, before he could think better of it.

She blinked with surprise, and then she smiled that huge bright smile of hers.

“Ah! Thank you, Rally!! That was so nice of you!!”

He ducked his head under his bangs and mumbled something that even he wasn't sure what it was.

“Come on, let's open them together then!”

“O-okay...”

He met her eyes after a beat, and blushed again at how shiny and happy they were.

“On three,” she said. “Okay?”

“Okay,” he said, smiling in spite of himself. Her smile was infectious.

“One...” she said.

“Two...” he said.

“Three!” they said together, and they both pulled the wrapping off of their gifts.

Luka had given him a small set of nice new tools—had she noticed him looking at these in the shop window? He had to open up the little box to pull out the screwdriver with a little bit of awe.

“Wow, Luka—thank you!” he said. He looked up to see her eyes lighting up at his gift.

“Oh my gosh, Rally!! Did you make this yourself?”

She pulled the little necklace out of its wrapping, letting the carefully twisted wires in the shape of her Signer mark twist in the light. He had worked some little red beads along the silver wires so that it alternated between red and silver, catching the light with an ethereal sort of grace.

“Y-yeah,” he said, blushing. “Do you like it?”

“It's amazing!!”

She tucked the notebook paper under her arm so that she could unclasp the necklace and put it around her neck. It looked just as pretty on her as he had thought it would, he thought with a growing warmth in his face and neck.

“Ahhh, Rally, it's so pretty! Thank you so much!”

Rally ducked his head, but this time, it was a happy motion rather than a defensive one.

“I'm really glad,” he said.

Thank you, he didn't say out loud. Thank you...for being friends with me...


	13. Thirteenth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: making a snowman
> 
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
> 
> Pairing: Pineshipping (Fubuki Tenjoin/Sara)
> 
> Characters: Fubuki Tenjoin, Sara
> 
> Time Frame: four months post series
> 
> Summary: Sara's never seen snow before, so it's up to Fubuki to show her the joys of playing in the winter!

Sara felt so useless. This white stuff was remarkably hindering—and all of the clothes you had to wear to keep yourself from freezing!! She could barely move. If Fubuki got into danger, she didn't know if she'd be able to protect him.

When she had mentioned this to him while he had been wrapping her up in layer after layer, he had only laughed.

“Sara, what is there for you to protect me from?” he had said. “We're only going out into the park. I assure you there are no dark creatures that are going to come and possess me out here.”

Sara wasn't so sure herself. As an assassin, she knew dangers could come from the most innocent of places, and Fubuki had already served as the host for a dark god once. That meant he was susceptible, and other creatures might take advantage of that.

She stood awkwardly, knee deep in the cold snow. Her arms felt so thick and her movement felt trapped with the three layers around her arms and the scarf pulled tightly around her neck and shoulders. Not to mention this snow was near impossible to move through—and it crunched! Every movement she made was broadcast across the entirety of the park!

At least there were a lot of people here, Sara thought, looking out around the snow covered area. More than one person was walking their dog, and there was a group of kids throwing balls of snow at each other as they tried to run through the deep snow, often tripping and falling on their faces. And at least there wasn't much cover—anything that sneaked up on them would been seen by someone for a long ways off before it reached them.

“Sara, over here, over here!! This snow is perfect!”

Sara turned towards Fubuki, who had somehow already far outstripped her and was almost ten feet away. He waved with both arms, his eyes bright and shiny even from this distance. /She swore mentally and hurried as quickly as she could through the snow towards him.

“Perfect for what?” she panted, mortified at how tired she was already from walking through this stuff.

“For building a snowman! Come on, let's go!”

“A....snowman?”

“Yeah!” said Fubuki, bouncing on his feet as though he were a child and not a young man of almost twenty. “When the snow falls you have to build at least one snowman. And this snow is the perfect consistency, look!”

He scooped up a handful of snow and started to mold it between his hands. When he lifted his hands away, Sara's eyes widened at how the snow had taken on a very solid, spherical shape. Was that normal for snow? She had never seen it before herself.

She lifted her eyes to Fubuki, who was smiling widely at her as though he had just shared a remarkable secret. Then he winked exaggeratedly, and lobbed the snowball over his shoulder towards the group of kids throwing snow at each other. The ball bounced off of one of the kid's backs, who whipped around with wide eyes, looking every direction for where the blow had come. Then he got hit in the back of the head by one of his friends and he whipped around with a shout almost like a battle cry, scooping up the biggest ball of snow he could handle and heaving it towards the offending friend.

Sara found herself smiling at them without really knowing why. Fubuki's eyes brightened.

“And after that, we should have a snowball fight,” he said. “But first!! A snowman!”

Sara sighed, and then let a smile grow over her face at the ridiculous young man.

“All right, all right,” she said. “So how do we go about building a snowman?”

Fubuki showed her how to pack the snow together into a ball, and then how to start rolling it so that it would pick up more and more snow until it became a giant sphere almost as big as Fubuki's torso. Sara was fascinated by the way that the snow stuck together—sand didn't do that at all. And she had seen snow before that could blow around in grains like sand could. Was this stuff more supernatural than she had first thought?

They rolled up another small sphere and then Fubuki lifted it on top of the next. Then he packed together one about the size of his head and popped it on top.

“Now we need some sticks and rocks for the arms and face,” he said.

And so Sara was sent off in the opposite direction from Fubuki to search, although miffed that she was separated from him. What if he got into trouble while he was looking for sticks and stones, his eyes on the ground?

Still...she had to admit...

She picked her the last stick that she could carry and glanced over the park to where Fubuki had bounced up, waving a rather large stick over his head to show her like an excited puppy. She smiled.

This was kind of fun, wasn't it?

When they regrouped, Fubuki showed her how to stick their branches and stones in so that the pile of snow appeared to have arms, and its “head” appeared to have eyes, a nose, and strange broken up smile made of rocks. Fubuki also stuck some rocks in a row on its torso, explaining that they were buttons.

When Fubuki had nitpicked over the exact placement of everything for about five minutes, he finally stepped back to examine their handiwork, rubbing his chin.

“It's perfect,” he said, snapping his fingers. “That's a much bigger one than usual, too! Lots of good snow this year!”

Sara just smiled, shaking her head. She found herself leaning against Fubuki without really thinking about it, and his arm slid instinctively around her shoulders.

“So,” Sara said. “What is a snowman for, exactly? Is it some kind of talisman or ward?”

Fubuki laughed.

“No,” he said. “It's just fun! That was fun, right?”

Sara looked over the strange man of snow that they had made, with its roundish pieces shoved together that looked more like insect body parts than human body parts. She shook her head with a smile.

“Yes,” she said, pushing deeper into him and enjoying his warmth. “It was fun.”


	14. Fourteenth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: receiving horrible presents
> 
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's
> 
> Pairing: Faithshipping (Aki Izayoi/Yusei Fudo)
> 
> Characters: Aki Izayoi, Yusei Fudo, Crow Hogan
> 
> Time Frame: four months post series
> 
> Summary: Crow isn't exactly known for being subtle, and Aki isn't entirely sure what to do with this...interesting gift of his.

Aki stared at the item revealed from its sloppy red and green packaging. Little balls of tape scattered the table—Crow wasn't particularly good at wrapping and there had honestly been more tape than wrapping paper.

She held the gift in both hands, staring at the cover with the faintest blush growing over her cheeks.

What is he thinking? she thought. We haven't even....

She heard the door open out in the hall.

“I'm home,” Yusei called softly.

She dropped the unwrapped gift in surprise at the sound, her face going as red as her hair for a moment. She whipped around to face Yusei as he appeared in the doorway. Her cheeks pulsed with heat as her hands gripped the item behind her back.

“W-welcome home,” she said. “How was work?”

“It was...fine,” he said, frowning slightly. “Are you all right? You don't have a fever, do you?”

“N-no, I don't,” she said. “I, um...I'm fine.”

Yusei cocked his head, clearly unconvinced. He set his toolbox down on the floor and stepped into the kitchen, his socks slipping softly on the floor over to her. His hand was cool against her forehead, and for a moment, her eyes fluttered shut. She leaned slightly into the touch, and his hand lingered there for perhaps a moment longer than necessary.

She felt almost disappointed when his arm dropped back down to his side.

“You do feel a little warm, though,” he said. “It's not because of...”

He trailed off, his eyes glancing over the mess of tape and wrapping paper on the table.

“Oh, was I...interrupting your wrapping things?” he said. “I didn't mean to see anything secret.”

Aki flushed and ducked her eyes.

“Oh, no, it's not that at all—I'm sorry. Crow sent us a gift and I just ended up opening it. I should have waited but...”

Yusei just smiled at her, that soft, gentle smile of his that crinkled the edges of his dark eyes and made his marker glimmer in the light, making him look somehow ethereal and magical instead of dangerous, as markers usually indicated.

“You didn't have to—you didn't know how long I was gone, anyway,” he said.

“I mean, it was...addressed to both of us, so I should have.”

He just shrugged.

“It's fine. So what did he send us this time?”

He grimaced a bit and Aki knew why. Last year Crow had sent them a box of cookies that had had more of the consistency of rocks than grain, and he had called them several times to make sure that they had eaten them and liked them.

Actually, Aki probably would have taken the rock cookies instead of this.

“Well,” she said, flushing. “It's...ah....I think he may be....hinting at something...”

Yusei blinked at her, waiting patiently. It was so embarrassing—she could barely look at him. But finally, it got to be too much just standing there, and she pulled the book from behind her back and thrust it towards him. Yusei jumped a bit at the motion. His eyes flicked over the title.

And then his cheeks went that soft pink, and she knew he was just as uncertain of what to do about this as she was.

Yusei rubbed a hand over his face, clearly trying to hide the warmth in his cheeks.

“T—that guy,” he muttered. “What is he thinking...”

Aki couldn't stop her blush either, staring at the book. What to Expect When You're Expecting.

“Goddammit, Crow,” Yusei said.

Aki held the book against her chest for a moment, her head pulled between her shoulders.

“He's really pushing for that, isn't he?” she said, feeling a bit of a laugh bubble up now that the initial embarrassment was over.

Yusei chuckled too.

“I don't know why he's so obsessed. He's already an uncle with Jack's kid on the way.”

“He probably feels lonely, all of his kids are starting to grow up,” Aki said with a little laugh. “I'll bet he wants all of us to have as many as possible.”

“That guy...” Yusei said again.

They both glanced at each other. And then they ducked their eyes away as the giggles started. They just stood there for a moment, giggling together, still red-faced, but smiles growing larger than the blush.

“I mean,” Aki said in between giggles. “Would...would it be so bad if we had one? A...a kid I mean.”

Yusei blinked. Then his pink turned almost red and he looked down.

“Is...is that something that you want too?” he asked.

She ducked her eyes to the floor.

“I've....always thought about it.”

She hesitated. Then she set the book down, and reached for both of his hands.

“Let's keep thinking about it,” she said. “For now...how about you help me out with dinner, okay?”

Yusei smiled at her, still pleasantly red.

“All right,” he said, squeezing her hands. “Sounds good.”


	15. Fifteenth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: sleigh ride
> 
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh DM
> 
> Pairing: Peachshipping (Anzu Mazaki/Yugi Mutou)
> 
> Characters: Anzu Mazaki, Yugi Mutou
> 
> Time Frame: one year post series
> 
> Summary: Yugi is a lot smoother at this than even he thought.

Yugi loved the way that the lights sparkled in the reflection of her eyes, the way that they seemed to dance in the dark azure that seemed almost black in the light. Her eyes seemed like the night sky in the Christmas-light illuminated evening.

And they were shining with wonder at the sight of all of the lights strung from every building and window front. Yugi thought it was pretty, too, but he was more awed by her eyes.

And by the fact that she was holding hands with him, which was almost a Christmas miracle in and of itself to his mind right now.

“Isn't New York beautiful during the winter?” she asked, looking across at him.

“It really is,” he said, blushing and hoping she hadn't noticed that he was staring at her.

She grinned at him and he blushed in spite of himself. It was weird just by itself that he was just about her height for once. It felt odd, as though she had shrunk instead of him growing. He could look her right in the eyes now without having to stare up at her and feel like he was years younger than her instead of several months older.

He blushed again and glanced out at the New York street. A light snow was falling over the streets and dappling the concrete with white, as though the ground were trying to mirror the sky with its dots of starlight in the black. Everything glowed here, a flashing of lights and sounds and scents and everything. He could smell hot chocolate cooking somewhere, and every storefront they passed warbled out some American Christmas song that washed over him without meaning beyond the melody.

This was only his first visit to New York to see Anzu while she was studying, and he was already planning the next. She was always telling him about all of the things she wanted to show him, but “oh this would be better if you came and saw it in the spring, do you think you come come during the break here?” or “you absolutely have to see the park in the fall, it's amazing! I think our schedules would match up here, right?”

He felt a warmth grow in his chest at the thought that she wanted him to keep visiting. Of course, he shouldn't be surprised, like, they were best friends after all, but...it was a nice feeling, that she wanted to be around him all the time that he was able to keep coming here to visit. He had been so afraid that they might drift apart from the distance.

He glanced down at her hand in his.

But perhaps they wouldn't after all.

Their conversation turned to Christmas plans, involving bothering Kaiba to help bring everyone out for a Christmas party and reunion. Pegasus was already game, though, so they probably wouldn't have much trouble if he was helping out. Anzu wanted to know what she could possibly get for Jonouchi, and Yugi was joking she could get him porn videos while she smacked him playfully on the shoulder for the idea, when his eyes caught sight of the carriage.

He had never seen a horse so close before, and it was huge. He had thought he felt a lot taller because he had started to grow finally, but this thing was ridiculous! He felt as tiny as he had been as a freshman again. The carriage was decked out in holly and tinsel, the elegant railings painted with silver and gold. On the side of the carriage was a sign. Yugi had to squint for a moment to understand the English, but then he realized that it was saying what the prices were for a ride. He glanced at Anzu.

Then he tugged gently on her hand.

“Anzu,” he said, nodding at the carriage. “Would you—like to go for a ride?”

Anzu paused, her lips parting slightly. She glanced at the carriage, and then at Yugi. And then she flushed with her smile, ducking her head from his eyes almost shyly.

“Yes,” she said. “I think I would.”

Yugi smiled widely at her, and then, still hand in hand, led them both over to the carriage as it ambled along.

Yugi stumbled over his English and Anzu giggled and then helped him out, and they paid the man for a short ride down to the next store they had been planning on going to.

Yugi stood beside the carriage and offered her his hand to help her up. She smiled at him with that same odd shyness that had never been there before between them, but she accepted his hand and let him help lift her into the carriage. Yugi followed, then—and hesitated, unsure if he should be sitting across from her, or...

Anzu made the decision for him, taking him by the arm and drawing her next to him. She sighed deeply and leaned into him, her head nestling under his. He could feel her warmth pressing into him, her hand wrapped around his. He slid his other free arm around her shoulders with a smile. He dropped his head into her hair and sighed, breathing in the scent of her fruity shampoo.

Well, he thought. Maybe he was better at this romantic thing than he had thought.


	16. Sixteenth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: making cookies
> 
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh Arc V
> 
> Pairing: Pendulumshipping (Yuya Sakaki/Reiji Akaba)
> 
> Characters: Yuya Sakaki, Reiji Akaba, Reira Akaba
> 
> Time Frame: who knows, some time post series probably, might even be AU since I don't know how the series ends with these two
> 
> Summary: Yuya's made waaaay too many cookies, so he's got to push them off on someone.

The moment Reiji walked through the door, he was practically punched in the face with the heavy scent of sugar cookies. He hesitated at the door for a few moments. He felt almost assaulted, and it took him a few seconds to blink and recompose himself in light of the attack on his senses. Reira looked up at him curiously, mouth parted in an “o.”

He tugged quietly on Reiji's hand, a sort of silent “is something wrong?” gesture.

Reiji's lips quirked into a half smile to reassure his little brother that, yes, he was quite all right.

Then he heard the thump thump thump sound of feet barreling down the hallway, and Yuya slid into view, socks sliding across the floor like he was some kind of speed skater.

“Ah, you guys are here! Hey, Reira!! How are you doing?”

Reira's eyes lit up immediately and he dropped Reiji's hand. He struggled quickly out of his shoes and then jumped up the step onto the hardwood floor, running over to hug Yuya tightly around the knees. Yuya laughed that bell-like laugh of his that chimed on the edge of Reiji's ears like a pleasant melody. He hugged Reira back.

“Thanks for coming,” he said, half to Reira and half to Reiji. “I didn't really know what to do with all of these—kaa-san brought back so many ingredients and I guess I kind of got carried away.”

“It's no trouble,” Reiji said. “I wasn't particularly busy...and Reira wanted to come and see you anyway.”

Yuya smiled and Reiji once more felt that uncommon thrill in his heart at the sight. Would he never grow used to the way that Yuya's genuine smile made him feel?

Reira clung to Yuya's hand as Reiji slipped out of his own shoes and stepped up into the hall.

“I figured we could wrap up at least some of 'em,” Yuya said. “And hand them out to people. Of course, you're welcome to eat as many as you want to—there's really waaaaay too many.”

“Reira shouldn't have too many,” Reiji said, looking pointedly at his little brother. “Or he'll spoil his appetite.”

Reira ducked his head briefly, and then peeked out from under the brim of his hat to give Reiji his best, shiny puppy dog eyes. Reiji was ninety percent certain that he had learned how to do that from Yuya. Reiji just raised an eyebrow at Reira in response.

“I'm not changing my mind,” he said.

Yuya laughed and squeezed Reira's hand.

“Don't worry, I'll sneak you some extra for later,” he whispered loudly into Reira's ear.

Reiji rolled his eyes, but Reira giggled, and the sound was more than enough to bring a small smile to Reiji's face.

Yuya led the way into the kitchen, where the smell of sugar cookies was even stronger, if that was at all possible.

Reiji had to stop and reconsider everything he knew about the phrase “too many cookies,” because this array completely blew his expectations out of the water. The entirety of the table was covered in sheets of the things, and the cookies were crammed tightly together in each sheet. There were even cookie sheets and piles of cooling cookies on racks set on the counter.

“I'm sorry,” he said, glancing at Yuya. “But were you intending to feed a small nation with these?”

Yuya laughed, blushing slightly.

“I might have gotten a little carried away,” he said, grinning sheepishly. “It was just so much fun, I couldn't stop.”

Reira seemed a little disoriented about the sheer amount of cookies himself, staring with his mouth half open. His eyes darted over to Reiji in a silent question.

“You can have five, Reira,” he said. “We'll take some home, don't worry.”

Reira brightened, and let go of Yuya's hand to trot over to the cookies and stare at all of the different shapes and colors. Some of them had been dyed red or green, and all of them were in suitably Christmas shapes: trees, wreaths, candy canes, stars, gingerbread men. Reira's hand snaked out to tentatively take a gingerbread man and he scuttled off instinctively to the corner to nibble on it alone. Reiji frowned a bit—it still bothered him that Reira felt it necessary to do things like that...but he wouldn't stop him from whatever coping methods he needed.

“This really is a lot,” Yuya said, sheepish as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Well...I've got a lot of this gift wrap stuff, and some ribbons and things. Wanna help me wrap up some packages? I mean, we're definitely not eating all of this ourselves.”

Reiji nodded.

“That's a good idea. It will certainly at least organize this mess.”

Yuya blushed a little deeper at it being called a “mess,” and Reiji wished he could turn off his feelings for a moment so that he wouldn't feel the brief rush of static on his arms at Yuya's goddamn adorable expression.

“Well, you wanna try one first?” Yuya asked. “Kaa-san says that I'm pretty good at cookies!”

He glanced over at Reira, who had finished the gingerbread man shaped cookie and sneaked back over to steal a Christmas tree.

“What do you think, Reira?” he asked.

Reira ducked his head, but he was smiling.

“It's good,” he whispered. “Thank you.”

Yuya smiled widely at him, and then grabbed a cookie for himself and popped the whole star into his mouth.

“Well...I'll admit I'm not really one for sweets” Reiji said dubiously, but he reached for a small, lop-sided Christmas tree one nonetheless. He glanced at it for a moment, and then took half a bite.

“Why do you have to be so tentative about it? I didn't poison it,” Yuya said, looking a little miffed.

Reiji almost chuckled, but he didn't want to spit crumbs everywhere.

Oh. Oh, it was...really good. Not overly sugary, but with just the right amount of sweetness and texture. He chewed for a few moments, and then finished the cookie.

“You made all of these by yourself?” he said when he was finished. “Did you have a recipe, or a mix?”

“I use my mom's recipe,” Yuya said. “And nope, no mix—batter's all done by hand.”

He looked suddenly uncertain, his expression flickering between concern and irritability.

“What, you don't like it?” he said, sounding just a bit prickly.

Reiji had to smile at how defensive Yuya was getting. By way of answer, he selected another cookie and popped it into his mouth. Ah—yes, it hadn't just been one, all of them were delicious. When he had finished, he smiled at Yuya.

“I do like it,” he said. “They're very good.”

He hoped that he wasn't misinterpreting Yuya's blush. He really hoped that Yuya wasn't just blushing because he was pleased—he hoped that the blush meant a little something more.

“Well, good!” he said, grabbing one of his own and shoving it into his mouth. “I worked hard on these, and if you had said you didn't like them, I'd probably....”

Before Reiji could think better of what he was doing, he leaned in and pressed his lips against Yuya's. Yuya froze in the middle of chewing. Reiji felt him swallow quickly, and wondered if he should pull back. But then, no, Yuya was pressing back into the kiss. Reiji could taste the sugar cookie on Yuya's breath.

When they broke apart, Yuya was blushing so hotly that he rivaled the red dyed cookies. Reiji smiled.

“Like I said,” he said softly. “They're delicious.”


	17. Seventeenth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: new holiday traditions
> 
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh Arc V
> 
> Pairing: Reira Akaba/Tatsuya Yamishiro
> 
> Characters: Reira Akaba, Tatsuya Yamishiro, Ayu Ayukawa, Futoshi Harada
> 
> Time Frame: it's probably post-canon at some point
> 
> Summary: Tatsuya can't believe that Reira's never celebrated any holidays, and is determined to introduce him to some new fun things that he does every year.

“Reira-kun! Reira-kun, come on!”

Reira shuffled along at the exact same pace as always, hugging his teddy bear tightly under his chin. He looked nervous—but then again, that seemed to be his near permanent expression. Tatsuya bounced on his heels, trying his hardest to be patient for Reira’s sake. But there was just so much he wanted to show Reira! So much that he wanted to do with him this year.

 _“You’ve never celebrated Christmas?”_ he had asked, incredulous. _“Oh! Do you celebrate something else?”_

Reira had just shook his head quietly.

_“Never? You don’t celebrate anything at all?”_

Another shake of the head.

Well, that was no good. Reira needed to have a little bit of fun once in a while! He was always cooped up in LDS Tower, and Tatsuya only saw him when Reiji brought him along to visit Yuya at You Show. Tatsuya had asked him then, if Reira would like to come along with him to look at Christmas lights—he and the others always went out to look at Christmas lights a few days before Christmas, it was kind of like their tradition. Ayu liked to take pictures of the prettiest houses and put them into a scrapbook along with pictures of all the other Christmas things they did, like their annual party at You Show (which Reira was certainly going to be invited to if they could just convince him to come. He had been so shy about it. Maybe if they got Yuya to convince him, he seemed to listen to Yuya).

“Reiraaaaaaa you’re so slooowwww!” Ayu whined from about ten feet down the street already. “I want to go see the lights!”

“Yeah, come on!! It’s gonna be really cool, Reira, we promise!” Futoshi shouted.

Reira ducked his head, hiding under the bill of his hat. Tatsuya’s shoulders slumped a bit. This wasn’t any good…he wanted Reira to have fun. He didn’t want him to feel like he was holding everyone back…

“You guys go ahead,” Tatsuya called. “Don’t worry, we’ll catch up!”

Ayu sighed loudly and dramatically.

“All riiiiight, but don’t make us wait too long! I want to get a group photo in front of the Yamakage house again!”

“We won’t be too long,” Tatsuya promised.

Futoshi saluted them both and then the pair scurried down the street and round the corner. Tatsuya turned towards Reira, who had shuffled up to Tatsuya at this point. He was still hiding behind the bill of his hat.

“Reira-kun…do you want to do this? You really don’t have to. We didn’t mean to pressure you into it.”

Reira pulled his head in between his shoulders.

“I…” he said.

He stopped. Tatsuya waited patiently. Reira needed space, he was still figuring himself out outside of a warzone. Reira fumbled for a moment, his mouth opening and closing a few times.

“I…I don’t want to bother anyone,” he finally said. “Because I’m…not fun to be around.”

Tatsuya shook his head furiously.

“Reira-kun, no! You’re not a bother! We wouldn’t have asked you along if we thought that.”

Reira scuffed his shoe on the sidewalk.

“We just thought this might be fun for you,” Tatsuya said, rubbing the back of his neck, suddenly awkward. “We thought…since you’ve never done this before…it might be fun to join the tradition…but we don’t want to make you upset.”

Reira’s head snapped up and he shook his head, eyes wide.

“You—you’re not making me—sad,” he said. “I just—I’m nervous—cause this is—new.”

He flushed and drew his shoulders around his head, hugging his teddy bear tighter. Tatsuya reached out for a moment. Then he hesitated, fingers curling in on themselves.

“Well…” he started. He hesitated. Then he stretched his hand out again. “If you’re nervous…then just stay close to me, okay? Until you feel better.”

Reira glanced up at Tatsuya with those wide eyes of his, looking uncertain. He stared at Tatsuya’s hand. After a few beats of awkward silence, he shifted his bear into the other arm. He reached out, slowly, hesitating with his fingers just over Tatsuya’s hand. And then he very slowly put his hand on top of Tatsuya’s. Tatsuya’s fingers wrapped around Reira’s, and for a moment, Reira almost seemed to be about to flinch away. But he relaxed, then, and let Tatsuya’s hand stay where it was. Tatsuya smiled.

“All right,” he said. “Ready to go see the Christmas lights?”

Reira nodded. Tatsuya smiled once more, and squeezed Reira’s hand.  
Then together, still holding hands, they walked quietly, slowly down the sidewalk, taking Reira’s pace.

As soon as they rounded the corner, Tatsuya heard Reira suck in a breath. Tatsuya couldn’t stop his smile from widening. This was the best decorated street every year—and he had hoped Reira would like it.

“It’s pretty, isn’t it?” he said.

“Yeah…” said Reira, staring at the rows and rows of twinkling lights strung between snowy trees, their lights scattering across the snow and sending diamond glitters over the ground.

“Reira! Tatsuya!” Ayu shouted. They hadn’t gotten far, it seemed, they were only a few houses down. “Come on, come on, come on, I want to get pictures!”

Tatsuya glanced at Reira. Reira glanced at Tatsuya.

“Well?” Tatsuya said. “Do you want to?”

Reira hesitated. And then he smiled. It was a tiny, tiny thing, but it seemed brighter somehow than the Christmas lights surrounding them.

“Uh-huh,” he said.

Tatsuya grinned.

“Let’s catch up, then!” he said.

He didn’t let go of Reira’s hand as they took off at a slow jog towards the other two. Tatsuya almost didn’t hear Reira’s whisper.

“Can we do this next year too?” he asked, so quietly that it might have been the snow speaking.

Tatsuya turned over his shoulder to smile.

“Of course we can,” he said. “It’ll be a tradition now!”

Reira’s smile got a little bit wider.

And Tatsuya thought, _as long as I can make that smile bigger every time…we can have a hundred traditions._


	18. Eighteenth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Snowed In
> 
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh DM
> 
> Pairing: Midriffshipping (Marik Ishtar/Amelda)
> 
> Characters: Marik Ishtar, Amelda, Ishizu Ishtar, Raphael, Valon
> 
> Time Frame: three years post-canon
> 
> Summary: Marik thought he knew what to expect when he decided to visit Amelda in the middle of a European winter, but he didn’t expect to be stuck completely by this ridiculous snow.

“ _What_ is this utter blasphemy?”

Amelda chuckled.

“Never seen snow, Mr. Desert Lizard?”

Marik growled out the window, which was frosted over so thickly that he couldn’t even see out of it. He didn’t have to in order to know that they were going to be stuck in this house for at least a day or two. The drifts were reaching nearly four feet and rising. Raphael had tried to get out the door earlier that morning and found that it wouldn’t open.

“I’ve seen _snow_ ,” he said. “I’m not _stupid_ , I had contacts in Europe in the old days. What I haven’t seen is this ABOMINATION against nature outside the window.”

Amelda just laughed again and kept reading his book, free arm still draped over Marik’s shoulder as Marik leaned against him, wrapped tightly in a blanket to keep out the cold that he was certain was sneaking in through the window to torment him. Amelda had joked that Marik must be a lizard of some kind because he didn’t seem to be able to produce his own body heat. Marik had just told Amelda to shut up and stop moving, he wasn’t allowed to move from the couch when Marik was cold and needed someone to cuddle with.

Valon was currently in the kitchen, trying to convince Raphael to let him go out the window so that he could shovel. Marik could hear his accented tone carrying over into the living room, arguing with Raphael in what was probably Italian. Marik wasn’t completely positive on that language himself; learning Arabic, English, and Japanese in addition to his native Egyptian (a useless dead language by the time he got out of the tombs) was more than enough trouble for him. He was still considering learning Bosnian, though, because he was tired of Amelda saying stuff in his own language and then grinning cross eyed at Marik while Marik struggled to figure out from the context what Amelda was saying about him. Judging by the way Valon laughed every time, it was something annoying.

Marik sighed and burrowed deeper into his blanket.

“You’re going to boil me alive if you don’t get up eventually,” Amelda said.

“Good. Then I’ll finally be warm.”

Ishizu leaned out of the hall briefly, raising an eyebrow at the pair of them.

“Amelda, you know if he bothers you, you can just push him onto the floor.”

“Definitely considering it,” said Amelda.

“Fuck both of you and your cold tolerance,” Marik grumbled.

Amelda just chuckled softly and ran his fingers through Marik’s hair a few times.

“Just go to sleep, you desert lizard,” he said. “The snow will be gone soon.”

Marik rolled his eyes, but he snuggled deeper into the warm pocket on the couch between his blanket and Amelda, and it wasn’t long until the heat from both, and the soothing feeling of Amelda’s fingers in his hair, sent him gently off to sleep.


	19. Nineteenth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: cuddling by the fire
> 
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal
> 
> Pairing: Protectionshipping (Akari Tsukumo/Kaito Tenjo)
> 
> Characters: Akari Tsukumo, Kaito Tenjo
> 
> Time Frame: one year post-canon
> 
> Summary: Akari’s pretty sure Kaito doesn’t know the first thing about taking care of himself. She’s going to fix that if it’s the last thing she does.

Kaito hadn’t stopped once this holiday season—he was going to kill himself at this rate. All of that running around, shopping, decorating, cooking, planning, juggling it all with watching Haruto and he wouldn’t let Akari do a damn thing.

More than once she had tried to grab him and sit him down, but he was too slippery for her and always flitting off to the next thing on his list. When she did catch him taking a breath, he would just snap at her to worry about holidays with her own family and leave him to figuring it out with his.

 _“Haruto loves Christmas,”_ he had muttered. _“It has to be perfect.”_

_“Okay, but what about you? Look at you, you’re going to drop dead on your feet before Christmas even starts! And then how will Haruto’s Christmas go??”_

At that point Kaito may have flipped her off but he was so tired that it was more of a flopping of a hand in her direction.

Yuma had already kind of decided for the whole group that they would hang out for Christmas anyway, so Akari didn’t know why Kaito felt the need to overextend himself. At least five people had offered to help him out with things, including his own goddamn father, but Kaito had basically told every single one of them to piss off.

“Hell,” Akari muttered as she stalked down the hallway with a bottle of water in her hand. “Even I’m not this stupid. It’s not like you have to do everything yourself if you want Haruto to enjoy himself—that kid would probably love you for giving him a garbage bag.”

She took an angry chug from her water bottle. She could still hear the laughter and joking from the group hanging out in the room down the hall, but that fancy-ass room of the Arclights’ was just too much for her today. She needed someplace quiet; this season was starting to get to her. She especially didn’t need to hear her brother singing terrible renditions of Christmas songs with a very awkward Ryoga forced into karaoke with him.

She was halfway down the hall when her eyes wandered almost of their own accord to a side room, drawn by the flickering of firelight inside. She was starting to walk past when she realized that Kaito was in the room.

She stopped, frozen in the doorway. When had Kaito gotten here? Sure, Thomas had invited him, but she was positive that he wouldn’t have come. Still “too busy.” And dude, was he asleep?

Kaito had slumped back against the couch, half draped over one arm, his head lolling back, mouth half open with sleep. Tiny snores escaped through his nose, and his eyes flickered. He must be dreaming, or something. Akari just stood there for a moment, almost dumbfounded at how peaceful he could look when he wasn’t shouting or glaring or being a general muffin of angst.

 _He’s finally sleeping,_ she thought, and was surprised to realize how much that thought relieved her. _Haruto told me he hadn’t been sleeping much._

She hesitated a moment more by the door. He looked…pretty uncomfortable like that. Like, there were better places for a nap. She hesitated. Then she stepped into the room.

She set her water bottle down on the end table and walked across the room past the couch to where she had seen a blanket draped over the back of an armchair. She returned with that and set it down on the couch. Then, as carefully as she could without disturbing him, she pulled him gently into a more comfortable position, propping his head up with one of the couch cushions. Then she pulled the blanket over him and stepped back, sighing. He hadn’t stirred once while she had been repositioning him, and now that he looked like he wasn’t going to wake up with a crick in his neck, she felt much better.

She let out another soft sigh. It was almost surreal, really, how peaceful he looked in his sleep. The firelight painted the curves of his face into orange and shadows, highlighting the fact that for once, he wasn’t crinkling his face up with distaste or irritability or whatever angry expression he had on that day.

“You’re a handful,” she muttered, running a hand through her hair.

He stirred, then, and she flinched. Damn, had she woke him up? His eyes fluttered, and for a moment, his grey-blue eyes flickered towards her. He groaned, shifting one arm over his eyes, struggling for a moment when he couldn’t get his arm out from under the blanket.

“What time is it?” he muttered.

“About five.”

“What…? Dammit…I shouldn’t…be sleeping…”

He swallowed once and sat there for just a few seconds. Then his feet slipped for the floor and he seemed like he was about to get up.

_Oh no, not on my watch._

Jaw tightening, Akari turned around and flopped down onto the couch beside him, grabbing the blanket and pulling it tighter around him.

“Nuh-uh. Go back to sleep.”

Kaito glared groggily at her.

“Akari, I swear to God—”

“You go right the fuck back to sleep. You’ve been wearing yourself out like nobody’s business and I’m not going to watch you die on me, you hear?”

Kaito struggled for a moment, but it was obvious that he was too tired to really fight against Akari. He groaned, letting his head fall back onto the pillow.

“I guess I don’t have a choice, do I?” he grumbled.

“Nope. You’re currently under house arrest until you get some goddamn sleep.”

“Fuck you.”

“Right back at ya.”

Kaito glowered once more at her, but he gave up. He knew as well as she did that he was too tired to move, even if Akari wasn’t holding him down on the couch. After a few beats, Akari let go of the blanket and just draped her arm over the back of the couch. She sat back with a sigh.

“You know, you’ve been worrying Haruto,” she said.

Kaito grunted. A sign that he was trying not to listen to her. Akari rolled her eyes.

“I know you want to make this a good Christmas for him, because the last bunch haven’t been,” she said. “But you know what I’m sure he wants out of this Christmas?”

Kaito didn’t respond. Akari could hear the faint sound of laughter and off-key singing coming from down the hall.

“He wants you to be happy,” she said quietly. “That’s what I’m sure he wants. Because you haven’t let yourself be happy at all, Mr. Grumpy Gus.”

She glanced down at Kaito. His eyes were closed, but judging by his breaths, he wasn’t asleep yet. She rolled her eyes. Ignoring her again.

“I hope you heard that,” she said, poking him briefly on the shoulder. “Because you need to fucking hear it.”

Kaito shifted.

“I thought I was supposed to be sleeping,” he muttered.

Akari almost shoved him lightly, but she settled for another poke.

“Smart ass,” she said.

He might have chuckled softly, but it might have been her imagination. They fell into silence, then, with her still sitting perhaps a little too close to him, and him drifting towards sleep as she stared into the fire beside him.

Finally, he was resting. That was a victory as good as any in her book.


	20. Twentieth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: shopping for Christmas presents
> 
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh DM
> 
> Pairing: Kiddyshipping (Rebecca Hopkins/Mokuba Kaiba), background Lilyshipping (Noa Kaiba/Arcadia Columnos [reincarnated!Amane Bakura])
> 
> Characters: Rebecca Hopkins, Mokuba Kaiba, Noa Kaiba, Arcadia Columnos (OC)
> 
> Time Frame: two years post canon
> 
> Summary: These two are a pretty dangerous combination when it comes to the holidays.

“We have FIVE DAYS until Christmas. FIVE. DAYS.”

“Which means, we have to buckle down and get moving—this is a list of the sales and last minute coupons we’ve got. This is going to be the last rush, so let’s get this done!!”

Noa stared at the ten page document that had been thrust in his direction.

“Excuse me, Mokie, but this thing is double sided and single spaced,” he said.

“Don’t worry, that’s just the ones we want you and Arcadia to hit up,” said Mokuba. “So we won’t cross over each other—this is more efficient!”

Noa stared blankly at him for a moment. Mokuba just grinned at his brother and crossed his eyes. Honestly, Noa's expressions were one of the most fun parts of this ridiculous outing of theirs.

Despite it being so close to Christmas, it was still super busy with last minute shoppers bustling all over the place in the crowded mall. There were vast waves of people in knit caps and long coats, laden down with bags sporting logos from numerous stores. Christmas music played softly from the speakers somewhere high above, clashing for dominance on occasion with a wave of music from an open store front, and the scent of fast food drifted up from the food courts below.

They had arrived about ten minutes ago and it had taken another ten minutes for Mokuba and Rebecca to regroup with Noa and Arcadia in the crowd—apparently that was partially because Arcadia had gotten distracted at least five times gawking over the sparkly decorations in store windows or the flashing lights of some new toy. If Mokuba was reading Noa's stance right, he was probably miffed that he had been pulled into this Christmas shopping mission. “Arcadia and I were going to see a movie, Mokie. Is this really necessary? All my shopping is done already.”

Yeah, but not everything was bought and prepared for the big reunion Christmas party with everyone, so that was the major mission today!

Rebecca flapped her own thick document at the group.

“I've optimized this for speed, efficiency, and ease of acquiring the listed items,” she said. “If you follow the instructions, your expected time spent should be two to three hours when factoring in lines and crowds. It should bring you into the food court at the same time as us so that we can reconvene for lunch at noon.”

Noa continued to stare blankly at his list, and Arcadia leaned up onto her tip toes so that she could put her chin on Noa's shoulder, looking at the list curiously, her lips a small “o” of interest.

“Got it, Noa?” Mokuba prompted.

Noa looked at Mokuba with a grimace. Then he sighed.

“Fiiiine,” he said. “Two to three hours. Got it. Not like I had plans today.”

He sighed again.

“Let's go, Arcadia, get this done,” Noa said.

“Yay! It'll be an adventure, Noa-kun!” Arcadia said. “What's first, what's first??”

Noa took Arcadia's hand and they disappeared into the crowd. Rebecca spun on her heels to face Mokuba, hands on her hips, looking quite pleased with herself.

“This will work out well, I think,” she said. “This Christmas party is going to be amazing.”

“As long as we have something to say about it!” Mokuba laughed, hooking his arm into hers. “Good plan, there, catching Noa while he was out with Arcadia—she'll keep him enjoying himself and make sure he stays on track since she thinks its a scavenger hunt or something.”

“I am a genius after all,” Rebecca said with a laugh. “Now come on, my fellow conspirator, we have some Christmas shopping to do!”

They grinned at each other, Rebecca clutching their ten page list of things to hit in one hand. Mokuba leaned forward to bump his forehead against hers, and she laughed, nuzzling noses with him briefly.

Then, arm in arm, they sauntered off on their mission.

The holidays had nothing on their combination.


	21. Twenty First

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: badly singing Christmas carols
> 
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal
> 
> Pairing: Flowershipping (Alit/Kotori Mizuki)
> 
> Characters: Alit, Kotori Mizuki, Mizael, Vector
> 
> Time Frame: two years post canon (they’re in high school now)
> 
> Summary: this was Alit’s idea but Kotori can’t help but feel that they’re just going to get themselves in trouble.

“Alit...”

“Come on, come on, this is going to be great, just watch.”

“A-Alit, I don't know...I mean, what if they get mad??”

“Don't worry, they'll just get mad at me, they won't get mad at you.”

Kotori sighed and resigned herself to being dragged down the street, frowning. That didn't make her feel any better.

It was an unseasonably warm day, although there was still a light layer of snow on the ground. Enough to justify wearing her warmest boots and mittens, plus the matching hat and scarf that she had made herself. She reached over automatically to fix Alit's scarf, which was always getting tangled in his arms. She had made it a little too long—she wished he would give it back to her so she could make him a new one, but he was adamant about having the one that she had made first. It was special, he kept saying. A talisman from the one you loved was a powerful amulet in battle!

But there is no battle here, Kotori had thought with a sigh. And I'll make you another one if I could just get the measurements right.

The hat, at least, she had gotten right, although he liked to wear it inside out for some reason or another.

Alit, for his part, wore only a light jacket, plus the hat and scarf. She didn't understand why he could tolerate the cold so much; she remembered clearly that the Barian World had been uncomfortably warm all the time, and she was pretty sure that Alit's past life had taken place where there wasn't much cold or snow. Still, he seemed almost oblivious to the flush in his dark cheeks or the breath crystallizing with every one of his pants. His hand was still wrapped tightly around hers, mittenless so that she could feel the cold of his skin even through her knit mittens.

They made it to the end of the street, lined on all sides with blinking lights and beautiful decorations. Except this house, which seemed to be having an argument with itself about whether or not it should be Christmas or not. There were some sloppy lights hanging from the left side, and on the right side, the lights appeared to have been torn down and left scattered on the ground. Only a few of the rather cheap looking inflatable Christmas decorations—reindeer, snowmen, candy canes—were actually running, with the rest of them seemingly melted onto the ground.

“Goddammit!” Alit snapped. “Fucking Vector—he got at my decorations again.”

“W-well, you know, all of you live together so you should maybe agree about decorations...”

“I'll bet Mizael helped him, bastards,” Alit said. “Those two don't even help with the rent! Fucking freeloaders, ruining my stuff.”

Kotori was starting to regret introducing Alit to Christmas. She had no idea why he was so excited to celebrate it. She liked it, of course, but she wasn't even Christian, and Alit was the farthest thing from Christian, having been born hundreds of years before that religion was even a thought in anyone's heads. Still, the moment she had mentioned it, he had seemed so interested, and demanded to know everything about it. After that, he had started wearing a Santa Claus hat to school almost every day, shoving Christmas cards into people's lockers, dragging Kotori off to do Christmas shopping, and of course, hung lights up on the house he shared with the other former Barian Emperors.

“Really, Alit, I don't know if this is a good idea,” Kotori said.

“No, this is a great idea—Vector and Mizael are gonna get punched in the face with Christmas spirit,” Alit said, that mischievous grin growing on his face. The one that told her that there was no dissuading him, and they were stuck in this together. She sighed. Really. He was just like Yuma, always getting himself into trouble and never stopping to think about the consequences.

Well, she supposed she should make sure she was here to keep him out of as much trouble as possible.

Alit put a finger to his lips and waved her after him, even though he was still holding her hand and she had to follow him anyway if she didn't want her arm to get pulled off. Alit led them around the back. He was trying to sneak but he was doing it in an overexaggerated way where he lifted his feet a little too high each time to land on his tip toes and creep around the back of the house, drawing a giggle from Kotori. He shushed her , but he was still grinning so there wasn't much force to it. She pressed a hand to her mouth to still the rest of her giggles.

They reached the back of the house, where Alit finally dropped Kotori's hand and bent down to scoop up a rock from the ground. He stuck his tongue out in a funny way when he was trying to aim, she thought. He lobbed the rock at the window and it made a cringing crack sound.

“What if you break the window?” Kotori asked, ducking her head and pulling her hat down around her ears.

“Nah, they're pretty solid, they won't break,” Alit said. He threw another rock.

There was movement on the other side of the curtains, a shuffling of fabric. Alit grabbed Kotori's hand and pulled her against the side of the house, under the back awning so that they were out of sight, shaking with barely concealed laughter. Above their heads, the window snapped open.

“I swear to God, if that's Yuma throwing snowballs at the window again,” Mizael's voice drifted down. “This is my room, Ryoga's room is two down from here!”

“Awwww, interfering with your beauty sleep, Miza-chan?” Vector's voice drawled from somewhere inside the house.

“Vector, I swear to God, get out of my room—”

Alit pressed a finger to his lips, and then held up three fingers. Two fingers. One finger...

They drew in a deep breath as one.

“JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE ALL THE WAAAAAAAY! OH WHAT FUN IT IS TO RIDE IN A ONE HORSE OPEN SLEIIIIIIIGHHHH!”

Really, it was mostly Alit belting out in his off-key tenor, Kotori was singing but she was so nervous that it came out in a barely audible warble. She winced at how off-pitch she sounded—of course, Alit would say that was the point, but it still bothered her after having taking so many years of voice lessons.

Somewhere up above, a chorus of obscenities roared from the window.

“FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING, ALIT, WASN'T ENOUGH TO BLAST THOSE THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE HOUSE FOR THE PAST WEEK??”

Vector was laughing somewhere behind it all, which was honestly more scary to Kotori than Mizael's shouting—sure, Vector was....a “friend,” now, but she couldn't quite get over how his laughter made her shiver.

They finished only one verse, but then the shouting had stopped, and Alit grabbed Kotori's hand.

“Come on, come on, I think they're coming around from the front!”

Kotori squealed, half with shock and half with nerves as Alit dragged her, still laughing, across the backyard and hefted her up over the fence before vaulting it himself. Kotori clasped her hands to her chest while Alit hit the ground, and then Alit was grabbing her hand again and they were running. Somewhere behind them Mizael was still shouting, outside this time, and they bolted down the sidewalk in a mess of giggles—Kotori from nerves and Alit from sheer mischief.

They didn't stop running until they were four blocks down from the house, and then Kotori couldn't run anymore and slipped out of Alit's grip to put her hands on her knees, catching her breath. Alit was flushed with the run and the cold and the mischief of annoying his housemates.

“That was perfect!” he said, clapping her on the shoulder. “I almost wish I couldn't have seen Mizael's face!”

“That was...certainly...an adventure...” she gasped, smiling in spite of herself. His laughs were pretty contagious, she thought with a warmth spreading over her cheeks.

She paused for a few more moments to get her heart back to a reasonable rate, and then she sighed, straightening.

“Was that fun or what?” Alit said.

“It was...interesting,” Kotori said, laughing a bit. “It felt a little dangerous, honestly.”

“Isn't that in the spirit of things, though?”

Not really, Kotori thought, but she didn't want to burst his happy bubble so she just smiled. A thought wormed its way into her head, though.

“Alit...why do you want to do Christmas things? I mean...the lights, and the carols, and the music, and everything. It's nothing close to what you normally would do right? So...”

Alit blinked at her, smiling.

“Well, you like Christmas, right?”

“Well, yeah...I've grown up with it.”

“Then that's why! I want to do Christmas things because you like them!”

Kotori blinked. Then she flushed a deep, deep red, ducking her head and pressing her face into her scarf.

“What? What?” Alit said, suddenly concerned. “Are you okay? Did I say something wrong?”

“You're just...so embarrassing,” she mumbled into her scarf.

Then before Alit could say anything else, she grabbed his hand and leaned into his shoulder.

“Come on,” she said. “Let's do Christmas things somewhere without angry dragon tamers, okay?”

Alit looked her for a moment, lips parted. Then he grinned.

“Sounds good,” he said.


	22. Twenty Second

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: ugly Christmas sweaters
> 
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh 5D’s
> 
> Pairing: Lua/young!Aporia [aka Luciano] (yeah I know it’s weird please don’t judge me)
> 
> Characters: Lua, Aporia
> 
> Time Frame: two years post canon
> 
> Summary: Lua is ninety-nine percent sure that Aporia is just doing this to be a little shit—and he’s one hundred percent right. Aporia just didn’t expect this to backfire on him so spectacularly.

“Come oooooon, it'll be great.”

Lua glared at Aporia, knowing that he was going totally red but being unable to do anything about it. Curse his family trait of blushing so hard—he was sure even his ears were red.

Aporia grinned at him over the top of the most terrible sweater that Lua had ever seen in his life. It looked like it was made out of tinsel, wrapped in fluffy lines of silver that poked out from the actual bright green sweater. There were pom poms attached to it, dangling off like ornaments in red and blue shiny fabric. White letters had been knit into the green reading “~Merry Christmas~”

“That's the ugliest thing I've ever seen,” said Lua.

“I know, right?” said Aporia, looking over his purchase with wide, sparkling eyes. “You have no idea how long it took me to find one this ridiculous.”

“Aporia....”

“You lost the bet, Lua,” Aporia said, shoving the sweater at him. “That means you have to wear it. Come on, it's just one day!”

“But at the Christmas party??” Lua said. “I have to make a fool out of myself in front of everyone??”

“You shouldn't have bet that you could beat me in a snowball fight,” Aporia said. “There are consequences to that!!”

Lua looked mournfully at the ridiculous, over the top sweater. Ugh. This was going to suck.

“Just try it on, it'll probably look great on you!” said Aporia, grinning at him, his eyes shining from under his auburn bangs.

“Why don't you have to wear one too, then,” Lua mumbled.

He gingerly took the sweater in both hands. Ugh, it was scratchy on the outside. It was probably going to be really uncomfortable to wear for a whole day, too. He bit his lip, turning it over a few times to make the pom poms shift. This really was going to suck.

“Come on, put it on, we've got to leave for the party soon, you know!”

Lua sighed. Well, a promise was a promise...and he had lost the bet. He swallowed his pride and turned the sweater over so that he could pull it over his head. It took him a second to figure out where his arms went, and then his head popped through.

Oh—it was soft inside! And pretty cozy, too, now that he was wearing it. The sleeves were a little long on him, though. He would have to push them up to get his hands out from inside, but for now he just let the the sleeves flop around.

“Well?” he said, still blushing. “How dumb does it look?”

Aporia didn't answer—he was just...staring.

“What? Is it that bad??” Lua said. “Let me see a mirror!”

Aporia jolted.

“W-what? Oh—no! I mean—no, it's not that bad I mean—”

Was he...blushing? Yeah, he was definitely blushing. Like his whole face was red, about as red as Lua knew his own face got when he was embarrassed.

“What's wrong?” Lua asked.

“It's—nothing,” Aporia mumbled, looking quickly down at the ground. And then, he added in a rapid undertone, “that'snotfairyoulookcute.”

“What was that?” Lua said, leaning in. “Can you repeat that?”

“No! No way!” Aporia said, head snapping up. “And—and you know what, you don't even have to wear it! Just take it off, this was a stupid idea, I won't make you wear it anymore!”

But Lua had gotten the gist of what was up now, and a slow, mischievous smile spread over his face.

“I look cute, huh?” he said, putting his hands on his hips and posing, hands still inside the sweater sleeves. “Huh—maybe I will wear it then.”

“Nooooo,” Aporia moaned. “That's not far. Stop it, Lua!”

“Aww, but I thought you said I looked cute in it! I should wear it every day, maybe!”

Aporia moaned and flopped face first into the couch. Lua just had to laugh, jumping beside him and hugging him with his too long sleeves.

“Hey,” he said. “It's not my fault that your bet backfired on you.”

“I hate you,” Aporia muttered.

“I love you too,” Lua laughed, hugging him tighter.

After a breath, Aporia might have awkwardly hugged him back. Not that he would have ever admitted it, of course.


	23. Twenty Third

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: putting up the lights
> 
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
> 
> Pairing: Eternityshipping/Possesshipping (Johan Andersen/Yubel/Judai Yuki)
> 
> Characters: Johan Andersen, Yubel, Judai Yuki
> 
> Time Frame: four years post canon
> 
> Summary: This is Johan’s absolute favorite part of Christmas, so what if they were a little late with putting up the lights? He didn’t mind waiting for them to come home first.

At first, Judai thought that they must have come to the wrong house.

“This is...his house, right?”

“It's the same address and color,” Yubel confirmed.

Judai shifted his bag on his shoulder, frowning at it. There was a light on inside, but not a single Christmas light hung from the roof. There wasn't a single decoration glowing in the dark, and come to think of it, wasn't Johan's Christmas tree right at the window usually? He should be able to see the Christmas lights from it glowing through the curtain.

He glanced at the spiritual projection of Yubel, feeling a little...uncertain. She just shrugged at him.

“Go on. He's expecting us, you know—has been for about a week or two.”

Judai grimaced. He hadn't expected it to take him so long to get here. He had gotten distracted on at least four adventures on the way here and being dimensional jumping type of adventures, they had lost more time than he had hoped. Johan was used to him being late, but during Christmas...? Johan loved Christmas, and Judai tried to make sure he was here as early as possible. As it was, it was the day before Christmas Eve and he was just now arriving.

And the house wasn't even decorated this close to Christmas—Johan was a master of decoration and he always decked the whole place out. Judai hoped everything was all right...

He pulled his bag higher on his shoulder, and headed towards the house.

There was a wreath on the door, at least, so that was something. And it looked like most of Johan's light up decorations like the reindeer and sleigh were already on the lawn, they just weren't turned on. Judai really, really hoped everything was all right.

He knocked once inside the wreath, and then stepped back from the door, shuffling his feet on the welcome mat.

He immediately heard the pounding of feet in the hallway. The door burst open, and Johan appeared, outlined in the backlight like some kind of silhouetted angel.

Before Judai could say anything, Johan was jumping through the door and throwing his arms around Judai.

“You guys are here!” he said, his voice bright with excitement. “Man, I was starting to worry about you!! I'm sure there's a story about it, huh? Come in, come in, come on, it's cold out here!”

He grabbed Judai's hand and dragged him through the door. Judai could hear Yubel chuckling, and he knew she was thinking about how he hadn't been eating or sleeping right in the past few weeks, and now that they were here, Johan was sure to force him to do both. Yubel loved staying at Johan's place. Because you finally start taking care of yourself, she always said. That's why I said we should just live here. Or at least bring Johan with us.

But Judai didn't want to impose on Johan, or drag him along from dimension to dimension again...his friend had had to deal with enough shit from him.

Johan dragged Judai inside and then closed the door.

“Man, it's cold! And oh, god, look at you, your coat's not nearly warm enough! Come on, I'll put some tea on—or do you want some hot chocolate? There's some extra blankets on the couch, go grab one, your hands are freezing!”

As always, coming back into Johan's warm, homey house, with its warm yellow lighting and wooden floors and worn couch, felt for a moment like Judai was walking into a dream. He almost pinched himself to remember that he was awake, but resisted the urge. Yubel, however, had felt that urge, and for a moment, she tightened her presence around him reassuringly. This is real, was the quiet reassurance. You're awake.

Judai smiled at her gratefully.

Johan whisked Judai's bag away with a brief exclamation at how heavy it was and didn't Judai know that carrying a one shoulder strap bag this heavy was going to hurt his back? In a fluid motion, he had the top open so that Pharaoh could crawl out, and the cat was sauntering after Johan into the kitchen. The young man set immediately to work bustling around the kitchen, his shoes squeaking and his hum twisting up towards the ceiling. Already Judai could hear tea bubbling on the stove and he wondered if Johan had somehow sensed that they would be here tonight at this moment. Wouldn't be the first time; Johan seemed to have a knack for guessing just when Judai would arrive.

Winged Kuriboh appeared at Judai's side with a squeak of delight and zipped off, meeting Ruby Carbuncle hopping down the front stairs. Ruby immediately leaped up to bat at Winged Kuriboh's wings, and the pair shot off chasing each other. 

Judai remained awkwardly standing in the entry way for a moment, as always, feeling just a tad out of place when he arrived for the first time. After a beat, Amethyst Cat appeared on the couch with a yawn.

“Ahh, Judai! You're home,” she purred, sitting up and stretching. “Good to see you.”

“Good to see you too, Amethyst,” Judai said, smiling. It was always good to see the Crystal Beasts. Now that Amethyst had appeared, he noticed the other spirits hanging around—Emerald Turtle was tucked into his shell at the foot of the couch, Amber Mammoth was sitting at the far end of the room with Cobalt Eagle on his back. Judging by the faint, ghostly sound of hooves and claws, Sapphire Pegasus and Topaz Tiger must be in the kitchen with Johan.

Emerald Turtle let out an echoey yawn from inside his shell.

“Hello again, Judai-kun...kept us waiting a bit, didn't you? Come in and sit down, you know this is as much your home as it is ours. You too, Yubel-kun.”

Judai ducked his head sheepishly and walked into the room. He glanced at Yubel and they exchanged a brief communication silently before he tapped the pendant around his neck, and Yubel popped into physical form. As always, Judai felt a slight draining, like a pool of water emptying out from inside of him.

Yubel settled with a sigh onto her own feet, stretching her wings for a moment. Then she took Judai's hand and pulled him over to the couch, pushing him down into a sitting position and dragging the blanket around him.

“Johan's right, you know...you're freezing,” she said.

“What about you? You're not wearing a coat either,” Judai mumbled into the blanket, although he didn't reject the warmth and did in fact pull the incredibly soft fabric tighter around him.

“Don't feel it. Perks of being basically half dragon.”

“Must be nice.”

Johan reappeared from the kitchen with a wide smile on his face, juggling a tray with three mugs on it in one hand and a small dish in the other. Judging by the way Pharaoh was staring at it as he followed at Johan's heels, it was probably a saucer for the cat.

“Yubel!” Johan said, eyes brightening. He set the saucer down for Pharaoh and the tray on an end table, then he and Yubel met in front of Judai for a brief, tight hug, one that involved Yubel wrapping her wings around him completely for a moment in an instinctive protective gesture.

“It's so good to see you,” Johan said, drawing away. “Both of you.”

“I'm sorry we were so late,” Yubel said. “Things came up.”

“I'll want to hear all about it,” Johan said with a laugh. “Are you guys hungry?”

Judai opened his mouth, but then hesitated, even as Johan was passing him a warm mug of green tea.

“Um, Johan...” he said. “Sorry, but I was just wondering—what happened to your Christmas lights?”

Johan blinked in the middle of offering a mug to Yubel, which she took out of politeness although she generally didn't need to eat or drink. She pretended she didn't like it, but privately Judai knew just how much she enjoyed tasting things.

“Oh! Well, I was thinking that we should put them up together,” Johan said. “I mean, we have every year since the first year you guys spent Christmas with me. So I waited.”

“You waited this long for us to do that?” Judai said, incredulous. “Johan....we didn't mean for you to wait...I—”

Johan held up a hand.

“No sorrys,” he said. “I'm sure whatever you were doing was important.”

He smiled.

“And waiting's not an issue, Judai. It never is. This is a special thing...putting all the lights up together. I mean...it feels right. Doesn't it?”

Judai looked down at his mug of tea, watching the liquid ripple across the thin surface.

Putting lights up, all three of them...lights that would glow in the darkness and give a sparkle of cheer to the shadows. He had to smile.

Yeah...yeah it was right. All of them together, putting lights up in the darkness. The way that...

Judai looked up at them, at Yubel and Johan, the way that Yubel's face lit up when she smiled at Johan or Judai, so different and so much softer than the way she had used to smile when he had first met her, the way that Johan's eyes sparkled at both of them and the way he bustled and fussed over them, the memory of both of their hands entwined in his in a tight reassurance. The feeling of warmth, support, stability that each one of them gave him.

“Yeah,” Judai said, setting down his mug and standing up. “That really is an important thing to do together, isn't it?”

Johan blinked at him.

“Oh, we don't have to do that now, Judai! You two just got here, you should warm up a bit first!”

“Nah, might as well get cold once more before getting warm for good, right?” Judai said. “Your house looks so much more festive with the lights...I'd like to help you get them up.”

“Me too,” Yubel said. “Your house needs all of the light, you know?”

Johan looked between them. Then he smiled.

They headed out into the cold together. They didn't need to get out Johan's stepladder, because Yubel just had to hover up there and they passed the strings to her, lining them up along the roof. It took them about fifteen minutes working together to string the lights all along the roof and around the posts, and then Johan grinned at both of them, ready to plug it in.

“Ready?” he said.

“Go for it,” Judai said.

Johan pushed the plug into place. The entire house lit up.

Judai heard Yubel sigh softly. It was a sound that he could agree with. A relaxing of his muscles, a deep sigh of contentment that came from somewhere deep within his soul. The lights outlined the edges of the house, glowing in the dark, little balls of red and green and white and blue and purple. The reindeer light up frames in the front yard were on now too, letting their soft white light scatter glitters across the snow.

They stood for a moment in the cold, close together, almost shoulder to shoulder, looking at the light glowing in the deep darkness.

Judai slid his hands in Yubel's and Johan's, and Yubel's wings pulled around all three of them, and Johan leaned into Judai's shoulder with a sigh, his free hand gripping the point of Yubel's wing in place of her hand.

“You two are my light,” Judai mumbled.

Yubel snorted.

“That was so cheesy,” she said.

“Yeah,” Johan said with a soft laugh. “I liked it.”

Yubel leaned her head on top of Judai's for a moment and sighed.

“I did too,” she whispered.

Judai had to smile, and then he closed his eyes. Just imprinting the sight of the lights on his eyelids, and feeling of their bodies pressed against him in his heart.


	24. Twenty Fourth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: making a holiday wish come true
> 
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's
> 
> Pairing: Misty Lola/Sherry LeBlanc
> 
> Characters: Misty Lola, Sherry LeBlanc
> 
> Time Frame: two years post canon
> 
> Summary: Misty knows that using her waning fortune telling powers can be dangerous, but she can't help but take a peek at what her girlfriend wants for Christmas. She thinks, in the end, making this wish come true was more than worth it.

Misty shifted with a nervous energy, her hand gripping the package tightly behind her back. She chewed on her lip with some excitement, but tried to make herself stop—it was a nervous habit that she needed to phase out before she tore into her lip again.

Sherry would be coming in about ten minutes. They were spending Christmas Eve together, for the first time since they had started dating. Sherry had seemed a little reserved about the idea of celebrating Christmas at first, something that made Misty wonder, because Sherry was actually raised Christian and seemed to have a fondness for her the religion of her childhood, even if she no longer believed in all of its tenets. But she had agreed after a little while to meet Misty at her apartment for dinner, at least. They hadn't had the time for a real date in ages, but with Christmas Eve, both of them would finally have a day off from their work. It was a good time as any to get together, right?

Misty almost took to pacing with her nervousness and excitement. Part of her was worried—would this make Sherry upset? This was partially the reason she didn't want to celebrate Christmas, and really, maybe Misty shouldn't have pried. Sherry would certainly be upset to know that Misty had attempted to use her fortune telling abilities without telling Sherry first. The last time Misty had tapped into her psychic powers, she had almost passed out. She still wasn't recovered from her time as Dark Signer, and from, well, of course, dying. Her body was frail and her mind somewhat weak without the influence of her dark god. Sherry hated it when Misty pushed herself—“There's no telling if you'll ever be strong enough to use your powers again, so stop pushing it! You need to try to get used to not using them.”

That was easy enough for Sherry to say, but it was so tempting for things like this!

There was a brief tap on the door and Misty jumped, almost yelping like a schoolgirl. She composed herself as Sherry pushed the door open, peeking in.

“Here,” she said, smiling and poking her hand through the door, waving the gift bag in her hand. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas,” Misty said with a smile.

Sherry grinned at her as she stepped into the room. She was dressed with the same elegant style that she had when Misty had first met her, several Decembers ago. The dark green dress hugged her figure tightly and accentuated her curves perfectly, causing Misty to stare for perhaps a few moments longer than necessary. Sherry winked at her from under perfectly styled bangs, her hair done up in an elegant bun. That wink held a lot of meaning, and Misty returned it with a mischievous smile. Christmas Eve, then, would not be a sleeping sort of night.

Sherry closed the door behind her before walking across the room to meet Misty, kissing her first on both cheeks and then briefly on the lips.

“I missed you,” she said.

“It's been a while since we've had time to ourselves, hasn't it?” Misty said, wrapping her arms around Sherry's shoulders for a moment so that their foreheads could touch.

“Mmm. Too long,” Sherry said, letting her eyes flutter shut so that she could pull Misty against her and press their bodies briefly together. She kissed Misty again, a slightly deeper, more lingering kiss that Misty returned with a smile.

“Are you hungry?” Misty asked.

“Starved,” Sherry said, laughing as she drew back a bit, back to her usual loud and blunt self. “I didn't have even the slightest damn thing to eat today—too much fucking running around.”

“Well, tonight is a relaxing night for both of us,” Misty said, hooking her arm into Sherry's and drawing her towards the table already set up in the suite's small dining room, candles set alight already in a suitably romantic fashion.

“There won't be much relaxing after dinner,” Sherry said with a flirtatious grin. “Hmmm...maybe I should just give you this now, then.”

She set the bag down on the table. She dug in there for a moment and pulled out a bottle of wine.

“That's not your Christmas present. Just didn't have anywhere else to put it,” Sherry laughed before setting the bottle on the table between their places. “Here you go, just open it now. I can't wait any longer to see your face.”

I know the feeling, Misty said, thinking of her own small package on the coffee table. She smiled as she pulled the tissue paper free and removed the wrapped item inside. Sherry had wrapped with a remarkable grace and elegance, and it was pretty simple to remove without much difficulty.

“Oh, Sherry,” she said. “It's beautiful.”

Misty turned the elegant vase over in her hands, the very same one she had been admiring in a store window a few weeks ago on an outing with Sherry.

“And you thought I wasn't paying attention,” Sherry laughed. “Thought it'd look nice on your coffee table or something. Matches your eyes.”

She fluttered her eyes with an exaggerated flirtiness and Misty laughed.

“It definitely would,” she said. “And since I have to make a trip to the coffee table anyway...”

She winked at Sherry and walked back to the table, fully aware that Sherry was probably making faces at her tight fitting black dress as Misty walked away.

Misty set the beautiful vase down on the coffee table, turning it a bit to situate correctly. She admired it for a moment, at the way that it seemed to perfectly offset the dark brown of the table. Then her eyes wandered back to her own wrapped present. For a moment, she hesitated. Maybe this was a bad idea. She didn't want to ruin Sherry's night by bringing back bad memories. But still...this seemed...she hoped Sherry would like it, or at least appreciate what Misty was trying to do.

She picked up the package and walked back to the table, where Sherry had already sat down and was pouring them both a glass.

“Oh, god, Misty, you didn't have to get me anything,” she said.

“And you didn't have to get me anything,” Misty said, raising an eyebrow. “Fair's fair.”

Sherry rolled her eyes, but she was still grinning. She accepted the package from Misty and turned it over once.

“Oh, feels squishy,” she said. “Wonder what's inside?”

Misty smiled, a little nervous as she settled into the seat opposite Sherry. Sherry glanced over the package for a moment longer, as though admiring the wrapping paper, then she slid her finger under the table to carefully remove the paper. As she revealed the item inside, her smile slowly started to slip. Misty felt a small tremor of regret. This had been a bad idea.

Then it was too late to go back, because Sherry was holding the vintage Cherry Beary teddy bear, bow tie edition, in her hands.

For a moment, neither of them spoke. Sherry swallowed and opened her mouth, then closed it. She did that again, two more times. Misty's hands tightened in her lap.

Finally, Sherry spoke.

“How did you know?” she whispered, her voice tight and hoarse with tears threatening to spill.

Misty looked down at her lap.

“I...I may have...glanced a bit.”

“You little shit,” Sherry mumbled, pressing a hand to her mouth, still clutching the bear in her hand. “Didn't I tell you that you shouldn't do that...? It makes you sick.”

Misty looked down at her hands, feeling an embarrassed heat sneak across the back of her neck.

“I wanted...to do something special for you.”

Again, a silence fell between them for a moment. Sherry just sat there, bear clutched in one hand, the other pressed to her mouth to still the sob in her throat, shoulders shaking slightly. Misty ducked her head. Maybe this had been a bad idea...

But then Sherry hugged the bear. Tightly, pulling it into her chest and pressing her face down into its soft fur. It was mint condition, Misty thought at the back of her head. She was still proud of herself for finding it.

Sherry sat there for a moment, just hugging it to her chest.

“I guess you already saw,” she mumbled into the bear.

“I only saw that you...had always wanted it. Nothing more about why...” Misty said.

Sherry swallowed thickly.

“...I saw it on television when I was seven,” she said, a slight laugh cracking on its way out of her throat. “Begged my mother for it. She said that it probably wouldn't be worth it. I'd lose interest in a few days. Kept asking for it anyway. Father kept winking at me every time I did, so I figured I was getting it for Christmas.”

Sherry pressed her face deeper into the bear.

“....It was just a few weeks before Christmas when...when they....”

She couldn't. Her throat closed up for a moment.

“I found it, later. It was the only present they had already purchased but...but it was all ripped up and trampled. Lost during the break in, I guess.”

Misty hesitated, then she stood up and walked around the table to Sherry. She reached out to put a tentative hand on Sherry's shoulder, her skin brushing lightly against Sherry's, ready to pull back if Sherry didn't want to be touched. But Sherry didn't flinch, so Misty tightened her hand around Sherry's shoulder, and put her other hand on the other shoulder, and started to rub her shoulders gently.

“I'm sorry,” Misty whispered. “I...I didn't think...this would be distressing...I didn't mean to bring back bad memories.”

Sherry's head pulled up from the bear and she turned to face Misty. Her make up was running from her eyes and tears still pooled at the corners.

“Bad memories?” she said. “Oh, god, no, Misty...I...I remember them, more clearly than ever...my mother's exasperated face after I begged for something I wanted off the television...my father's exaggerated winks that ruined every surprise...I—Misty, I remember them...without all the blood for once...”

She sobbed again, and turned in her chair to press her face against Misty's chest. Misty slid her arms around Sherry's shoulders, holding her as she shook and cried. Sherry wouldn't release the bear, but she slid one arm around Misty's waist so that she could pull even tighter into Misty.

They sat there, together, just holding each other, for a long, long moment. The soft bear squished in between them.

Finally, Sherry's sobs faded. She didn't move for a moment, still pressed into Misty. It was Misty who moved first, letting go and kneeling down so that she was a bit below Sherry's face, bringing out a handkerchief to dab Sherry's running makeup and try to clean it up a bit. Sherry let Misty work for a moment, and then she shook her head, waving the handkerchief away.

“I'd better—just wash it off,” she said, sniffling, rubbing her nose on the back of her hand. “Christ, and after I spent so much time getting ready, too...I'm a mess.”

“You're not,” Misty said. “You're the opposite of a mess.”

Sherry bit her lip, her watery eyes shining at Misty.

And then, finally, she smiled. And it was perhaps the most real and shining smile that Misty had ever, ever seen from her.

“Thank you,” she whispered, hugging the bear tighter to her chest. “God...thank you, Misty. Thank you.”

Misty smiled, and cupped Sherry's face in her hands for a moment.

“For you,” she whispered. “Anything.”

Sherry laughed, choking on her tears. Then she leaned down and bumped her forehead against Misty's, just leaning into her for a moment with her eyes closed. Misty's eyes fluttered shut herself, and then, before either of them knew it, they were leaning into the kiss, a deep, desperate one this time that would keep them under for several moments.

The bear remained between them, a thick, fuzzy spot of happiness that held them together.

It was a beautiful Christmas Eve.


	25. Twenty Fifth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: work holiday party
> 
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
> 
> Pairing: Tomorrowshipping (Asuka Tenjoin/Jim Crocodile Cook)
> 
> Characters: Asuka Tenjoin, Jim Crocodile Cook, Jun Manjoume, Judai Yuki, Shou Marufuji, Daichi Misawa, others....
> 
> Time Frame: six years post canon
> 
> Summary: this will be the first year that Asuka is going to this party with someone in tow.

Asuka laughed at something Junko had said, trying not to spill her glass with the roll of laughter. She honestly couldn't remember what had been so funny, but her coworker was laughing her ass off too and one would have thought they were probably a little tipsy, even though Asuka hadn't even touched the alcohol yet tonight.

“Oh my god,” she giggled. “Junko, why?”

“I thought you'd think that was funny,” Junko laughed. “But enough stupid stuff, okay! You're going to tell me who's coming to meet you!”

“What makes you think someone is going to meet me?”

The party was just starting to pick up. Most of its attendees were already here, spread out amongst the tables. Asuka picked out the faces she recognized: Chronos, of course, he was here every year and appeared to be regaling anyone who would listen about something or another., like usual Finally becoming the school's official vice principal had done nothing for his humility. She had caught a vague glimpse of both Seto Kaiba and Pegasus Crawford a few minutes ago, but they seemed to have disappeared. She remembered seeing Kaiba's disgruntled look as Pegasus had followed after him, and figured that the CEO of Industrial Illusions must be being a bother again. She had to smile at that. Her fellow teachers were there too, and a few from the other campuses that she only saw every so often, and of course, her friends that had decided to crash as usual.

She hid her smile behind her glass at the sounds of Kenzan and Shou arguing about something again. Manjoume appeared to be doing his best to not get involved but they kept asking him to give his opinion on whatever it was they were arguing about, and the dark haired man would fumble for a few moments before giving an unsatisfactory answer that only caused the bickering to continue. Misawa and Tania had made a surprise appearance and Tania appeared to be testing out how much food she could stuff in her mouth at once while Misawa got distracted discussing some weird mathematical theory with Duel Academia's math professor. Johan was already surrounded by a few other teachers and laughing and joking with them, drawing people to him as easily as ever. His school for kids with Duel Monsters related abilities was only just starting to pick up, and he was drumming up as much support as possible while he was here. His campus was still getting the paperwork done to become associated with the other Duel Academia campuses, but it was looking good for him. Judai hung awkwardly near Johan, looking as out of place as ever. She knew that he wasn't a huge fan of parties, but at least today he seemed to be enjoying himself, giving out a small smile every so often and actually laughing a bit every now and then.

Junko brought Asuka back to her by snapping her fingers once, and then grabbing Asuka's hands.

“Come on!” she said, holding Asuka's hand up and pointing to the ring there. “You're not fooling me or anyone! You've been so quiet about your romantic life, whose ring is this??”

“I could just be wearing a ring because it looks nice,” Asuka laughed, pulling her hand free.

“Bullshit! Who is it? I thought for sure it would be Judai since you've been hanging out so much, but apparently he's been living with Johan for the past three years so clearly it's not him. Who else have you been seeing? Ooh, gosh, it's not Mizuko in administration, is it?”

“We went on one date,” Asuka laughed, waving her hand. “That you forced us into.”

“You two would be good together!” Junko insisted. “But okay, fine, it's not Mizuko. Who? Is it the guy you're always texting between classes? Is he foreign? Do I know him?”

“Yes, yes, and yes,” Asuka said with a grin. “And he's been here, Junko. I thought you paid better attention.”

Junko's eyes widened for a moment as she tried to think of who Asuka might have been seeing.

“Ugh! Stop being so cryptic, Asuka-chaaan,” she said, shaking Asuka's arm. “When did he propose?”

“Three days ago, actually. And I actually proposed to him.”

“Should have guessed as much!” Junko laughed. “Is he coming tonight? You've never brought anyone to this party before!”

“He's coming, he's coming...he's a little late. Probably because Karen doesn't like the cold and he has to settle her in...”

Junko's mouth dropped for a moment. And then recognition flared in her eyes just as the door opened.

“Oh my god,” she said, eyes lighting up and a smile breaking over her face. “Oh my god, why didn't I notice this??”

“Oy, Tomorrow Girl, sorry I'm late!”

Junko was still gripping Asuka's arm and practically squealing under her breath as Jim jogged across the room towards them, his cheeks flushed from the cold.

“Karen really didn't want to go, so I had to make sure she was warm,” Jim said with a laugh, pushing his hat back from his face. “Sorry about that.”

“It's fine, really, I should have waited for you,” Asuka said, extracting herself from Junko so that she could hug Jim briefly. He kissed her on the head with his characteristic boldness, not apparently caring who was watching. Asuka still blushed as she pulled away, still holding his hands.

“Jim,” she mumbled. “Not in public.”

“Sorry, sorry,” he laughed, still holding her hands—they felt cold, but Asuka didn't pull away. “Can't always help myself.”

“Well, I suppose I could let it pass tonight,” Asuka said, shaking her head with a smile.

Jim grinned at her with that sparkle in his eyes that never seemed to dim.

“Junko, you and Jim have met before, right?” Asuka said.

“Once or twice,” Jim said. “I remember you, though, from the old school days! How have you been?”

“Great, thanks,” Junko said, accepting Jim's handshake. She shot Asuka a wide grin, and Asuka knew she was going to have to be giving Junko every little detail about how they had gotten together later tonight. For now, though, Asuka was content to let Jim pull her away, hooking his arm in hers.

“I'll talk to you later, Junko, I want to see everyone else tonight too,” she said.

“Sure!” Junko said. “Have fun!”

She sent Asuka an exaggerated wink and then flounced off as though she were a teenager again. Asuka rolled her eyes and laughed. Jim smiled at her. There was a beat, then, where they just stood next to each other, Jim pressing closely to her side with his hand still twined into hers. He made that little breath out that always told her that he was feeling relaxed, and she found herself making the same sound as she rested her head on his shoulder.

“Ah, but I'm pretty hungry! Didn't get a chance to eat today.”

“Better get over there before Tania eats it all,” Asuka said.

“Tania's here?” Jim said with a wide grin. “Karen was just saying she wanted to see her!”

Asuka laughed and slid her arm around his, leaning against him.

“She'll have to come and visit, then,” Asuka said. She wiggled her finger with the ring on it, letting the light catch it. “So...should we go tell everyone the big news?”

Jim smiled that big, relaxed smile of his, the laid-back kindness that Asuka had fallen for in college.

“Let's do that,” he said, squeezing her hand.

They walked down towards the knot of their friends, and Asuka smiled at the greetings from all of them. She squeezed Jim's hand back.

There was a peace tonight. And she was going to savor it.


	26. Twenty Sixth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: eating candy canes
> 
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
> 
> Pairing: Austin O'Brien/Maiden of Aqua
> 
> Characters: Austin O'Brien, Maiden of Aqua [fan name: Manami]
> 
> Time Frame: two years post canon
> 
> Summary: She's never tried this human sweet before, but it's much better than she expected! Perhaps O'Brien wants to try it too?

O'Brien tapped away at his keyboard, finishing up his report for Chairman Pegasus. He was kind of late with this one; he had spent Christmas with his parents and work had slipped his mind. Of course, he knew Pegasus wouldn't mind, and would probably scold him for worrying about turning in work the day after Christmas—you should be relaxing with your family, Austin-boy!—but he still knew he needed to get this done.

There was a light tap on the door, and then it squeaked open and he heard the light padding of footsteps that could only belong to Manami. She didn't say hello, but he noted the way that she placed her feet carefully so that he was sure to be able to hear her, the way that she very pointedly sat down on the bed slowly enough so that it creaked, letting him know exactly where she was so as not to startle him. He smiled slightly to himself in gratitude for that; sometimes he still flinched when people approached him without warning.

She waited patiently for him to finish typing before speaking.

“Are you done?” she asked, that light voice of hers dancing on the air.

“Yes,” he said, hitting the send button. “Did you need something?”

“No, I just came to say hello.”

He turned around in his chair and smiled at her, and she smiled back around the red and white striped candy she was sucking on.

“Where'd you get that?” he asked.

“Your mother gave it to me,” she said, smiling as though she were a child. “It's quite good! I've never had one before!”

She blinked and looked down at it then, cocking her head.

“What was it call again? A candy candle?”

“A candy cane,” O'Brien said, smiling and shaking his head. It was always fascinating figuring out what she did and didn't know about in the human world. She understood complex things like cars and airplanes despite her own world not having them, she understood computers and cell phones without them being explained, but something as simple as a candy cane fascinated her.

“Have you had them before? They're delicious!”

“Mami hands them out every year to everyone,” O'Brien said, shaking his head. “She's always sending me boxes of them at the beginning December.”

“Do you like them?” Manami asked, with her characteristic bright eyes and curious expression.

“Well...they're pretty good I guess. I'm not always really one for sweets. Especially not too many of them.”

She hummed in response to that and returned to sucking on the candy cane contentedly. He tried not to smile too much; he didn't want her to think that he thought she was silly. She was actually incredibly adorable when she found something in the human world that she didn't understand; the way that her eyes lit up with fascination was one of the things he loved so much about her.

He got up from his chair and stretched. Then he wandered over to the bed and settled down next to her, sighing. She leaned her head against his shoulder automatically, still sucking on her candy cane. He moved his hand around her shoulder and closed his eyes for a moment. It was nice, just sitting with her.

His eyes half opened as he felt soft lips touch his for a moment, and he tasted peppermint there. She drew back slightly, as though making sure that he was okay with this. He was.

They kissed briefly, the taste of peppermint passing between them.

When they pulled away, he didn't open his eyes right away.

“I wanted to make sure you liked the taste before I kissed you,” she said, sounding sheepish. “Was that all right?”

He laughed softly and opened his eyes so that he could hug her.

“Yeah,” he said. “It was great.”


	27. Twenty Seventh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: traveling for the holiday
> 
> Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh Arc V
> 
> Pairing: SeleRuri
> 
> Characters: Selena, Ruri Kurosaki
> 
> Time Frame: some time post canon probably
> 
> Summary: Selena's never actually seen the XYZ dimension, but when Ruri found out she didn't have anyone to spend the New Year with, she insisted that Selena join her family.

“Are you sure this is okay...?”

“I'm positive! Come on, it'll be fine, Sel.”

Selena gripped her bag with more than a little nervousness. She felt utterly stupid for the feeling. She was Selena, of Duel Academy, one of the Lancers. A great duel warrior and, according to at least a few sources, a war hero (Selena herself wasn't too certain of the worthiness of such a title). She shouldn't be nervous over a silly holiday party.

And yet, here she was, standing awkwardly in the middle of a Heartland train station and trying not to make it noticeable how closely she was standing to Ruri. Ruri was busy tapping out a message on her little eyeglass—a D-Gazer, they called it? Probably texting Shun to tell him that they had arrived. When she noticed Selena shift closer to her, her eyes glanced up. She sent Selena a reassuring smile, and tucked her D-Gazer away in her breast pocket so that her hand was free to curl around Selena's.

“You're going to do fine,” she said. “I promise.”

“But I've...never done anything like this before,” Selena mumbled, trying to ignore the heat in her cheeks. “I've never...I've never spent a holiday with anyone before.”

“All the more reason for you to spend it with us.”

Selena's eyes cast around the station. So brightly colored, so cheerful. With its great golden arches and occasional heart décor dotting the brightly painted walls, the wide sparkling floors in gold and silver mosaics. It was a far cry from the cold, stark walls of Academia, its thick, unyielding pillars and the constant chill of the sea clinging to every pore.

It looks so....alive, she thought. Like a field of flowers.

People bustling everywhere, to and fro, decked as they were in thick coats and hats and scarves in various colors. There was music playing in the background, tune and carols that Selena had never heard before, and ornaments glittering against strings of lights on the decorative windows of the little shops that made their home inside the station. She had never seen quite so many people, and certainly not so many smiling people, people who shouted to each other and called happy greetings.

She felt something in her tighten and shrivel, drawing in on herself instinctively. This was...wrong. Or rather, she was wrong. She didn't belong here.

“Ruri, I don't—I don't know about this.”

Ruri looked up at her, eyebrows drawing together with worry. She drew closer to Selena and snuggled her chin against Selena's shoulder, hand tightening in hers.

“What's wrong?” she said.

“I don't belong here,” Selena whispered, feeling her throat tighten. “I don't...belong here.”

“Oh, Selena...”

“I—my people burnt this place to the ground. And I would have...I would have done it too, if the Professor had let me. I would have come here and I would have—I would have hurt you. And everyone here.”

“Selena.”

Selena closed her eyes and squeezed her lips together.

“I should go.”

“No, please...Selena.”

Ruri's arms slipped around Selena's waist and she pushed her face into Selena's shoulder. Selena instinctively wrapped her arms around Ruri's shoulders next and dropped her head into Ruri's hair, breathing in the deep smell of her floral shampoo.

“I would have hurt you,” she whispered again, feeling her hands shake just at the thought of it.

Ruri sighed into Selena's shoulder.

“But you didn't,” she said. “And you're here now.”

Selena wasn't sure what to say. She could only stand there and hold Ruri for a long, long moment.

“If you want to go back, I won't make you stay,” Ruri whispered. “I don't want you to be uncomfortable.”

Selena hesitated. The sounds, the colors, the lights, all of it...it was so...so different. So far from what she was used to. And...and she would have destroyed it. All of it. If Yuzu hadn't stopped her...if Reiji hadn't recruited her...and if Ruri hadn't decided to forgive her....

She sighed once more into Ruri's hair, closing her eyes.

“No,” she said. “It's...okay. As long as it's okay with you.”

Ruri did not lift her head, but Selena was sure she was smiling as her arms tightened around Selena's wait.

“It is,” she whispered.

It was all Selena needed to hear.


End file.
